The Barton Community College volleyball team made short work of its home and conference opener Wednesday night at the Barton Gym sweeping Dodge City Community College 25-16, 25-21, and 25-15.
The victory improves the Cougars to 8-4 on the year while Dodge City remains winless in Jayhawk play at 0-4 in dropping to 1-12 on the year. Barton has the weekend away from competition before heading to Hutchinson Community College on Monday for a 6:30 p.m. first serve inside the Sports Arena.
The first set began with toe-to-toe action through the first fourteen points as the teams were deadlocked at seven apiece. Beginning with a Dodge City service error, Barton took advantage of two more Conquistador errors with a block from freshman Victoria O'Keefe to build an 11-7 lead. Following a service error out of timeout to end the Barton four straight, the Cougars would again put together a four point stretch midway through the set pushing the lead out to 19-11 in rolling to the nine point win.
After a sizzling .611 attack in the opener, the Cougars went cold to begin the second set as the Conquistadors grabbed the first four points and were leading 8-4 causing Barton to utilize their first timeout. A ball handling error and consecutive Migle Mazurkeviciute service aces on either side of a Dodge City timeout quickly cut the Barton deficit to just 8-7. The Conquistadors rattled off the next two points to open the lead wider and led by two at 12-10 before the Cougars awoke for five straight including a Mazurkeviciute kill and O'Keefe service ace for a three point advantage. A Janessa Walker kill with a Lacey Mitchell service ace at the ends of a four point spurt increased the lead to six at 19-13 in cruising the rest of the set for a four point win.
Facing another deficit early in the third, the Cougars rallied behind five straight to assume a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Dodge City cut the margin to one a pair of times but the Cougars all but put the nail in the coffin stringing eight points together in building a 16-7 lead. Mazurkeviciute, Rayanne de Oliveira, and Agnieska Paskevic each tallied a pair of points in the stretch with Oliveira keying another trio of points building the lead out to 19-8 in the third set rout.
As a team Barton attacked at a .304 clip led by Oliveira's team high ten kills and .529 percentage with Mazurkeviciute close behind with eight kills and .412 as Paskevic keyed the offense with thirty assists. Oliveira accounted for five of Barton's nine blocks with three Cougars tallying double-digit digs led by Mitchell's fifteen followed by O'Keefe's thirteen and Mazurkeviciute's ten.