The Barton Community College volleyball team rallied from a two set deficit Monday night at the Barton Gym to earn a thrilling five set victory over Hutchinson Community College 17-25, 20-25, 25-19, 25-19, and 17-15.
"This was a true team win with a great atmosphere," said Head Coach Brandon Stephenson. "We had to come back from early mental mistakes but the girls really showed what they are capable of doing every time out on the court."
Barton improves to 9-5 in Jayhawk Conference play and 19-14 on the year while third place Hutchinson drops to 10-5 and 16-15 overall. The Cougars control their destiny of a first round home playoff game with two home matches remaining in the regular season beginning with fifth place Butler Community College (8-7, 15-13) at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
A 4-0 run gave Hutchinson some breathing space in the first set before Barton would climb back in it with a trio of points to draw to within 19-17. The Blue Dragons responded out of their timeout to rattle off the final six points to take the opening set.
The Blue Dragons erased an early second set deficit with a 6-0 run to lead 9-4. Barton climbed back in it stringing a pair of points to Hutchinson's one, eventually drawing to with one at 12-11 but couldn't never get it tied in last trailing by one at 19-18. From there the Blue Dragons rattled off three straight to gain separation before trading points for the five point victory.
Barton wasn't ready to be swept on their home floor for the second straight year in the series, breaking opening a tight third behind the spark of Kassidy Pflughoeft in stringing a 6-0 spurt to grab an 18-14 lead. The Blue Dragons closed the gap to 19-17 but another four point stretch as the Cougars started to heat up including another Pflughoeft attack mixed in pushed the lead out to seven in holding on for the six point win.
Barton got even hotter, improving on their .237 third set, attacking on a .300 clip in the fourth as a back-n-forth battle ensued only this time it was the Cougars with the surge on three straight for a 17-14 momentum swing. Hutchinson, like Barton in second set, kept things close drawing to within one multiple times but could never tie it up. A 4-0 late set run gave Barton a five point edge at 23-18 in winning their second consecutive set by six.
Having played just one five setter all season, the Cougars' early edge was quickly erased as the Blue Dragons rolled out seven straight points for an 8-3 lead to the changeover. Barton also used the court flip time to call a timeout and the Cougars responded with their backs to the wall with five straight behind kills by Mackenzie Pease and a pair from Migle Mazurkeviciute to tie it up at eight.
"To see the players telling each other that it's not over after going down two sets and down 3-8 in the fifth was great," said Stephenson. "They never gave up and fought to the end tonight. Seeing the result of their effort and will to win was very gratifying."
With a raucuous crown in support of both squads, the teams traded the next four points but the Blue Dragons looked to improve on their 1-4 record in a fifth set by surging out ahead with three straight for a 13-10 lead. Again the Cougars responded coming out of the timeout, getting a trio of Hutchinson errors before a Rayanne de Oliveira block to grab match point at 14-13. Hutchinson starved off two match points but a service error opened the door as Oliveira along with Ariana Taylor stuffed an attack to the Blue Dragon side of the court for the victory.
The game clinching block was the Cougars' 15th of the night being led by Oliveira's seven assisted blocks and Pease's eight total rejections.
Mazurkeviciute led all players with fifteen kills on thirty-eight swings to go along with twelve digs and a block to record the Lithuania freshman's 10th double-double of the year. Pease added ten kills to go along with her big blocking night at the net while sophomore Laine Alves matched a season best ten kills.
Agnieska Paskevic led Barton's 6-2 offense with 25 assists while Kaila Harris put up 23 to go along with ten digs for the Texan sophomore's team leading 11th double-double performance.
Libero Karina de Oliveira joined Mazurkeviciute with the team leading twelve digs while Kate Deterding chalked up ten digs in just two sets of action.
Barton needs to win one of their two remaining matches, leading the Grizzlies by two games in the loss column of the standings. Should Butler win, increased importance turns to Saturday's 2:00 p.m. regular season finale against sixth place Independence Community College (5-9, 8-17). The Cougars do have slim hopes of jumping into third place should Hutchinson lose to Independence on Wednesday at the Sports Arena and Barton is able to run the table.
In conjunction of Wednesday's "Dig Pink" match versus Butler, the Cougars will conclude its silent auction with proceeds benefitting a local organization assisting those affected by cancer. Up for bid from now through the first set of the match with the Grizzlies are a commemorative volleyball and jersey signed by members of the 2018 volleyball program. Additional information can be found via the "BartonVolleyball" Facebook page, "BCCVolleyball" Twitter account, or contacting the coaching staff at either StephensonB@bartonccc.edu or LittletonT@bartonccc.edu.