Trailing 2-1 Wednesday night at the Power Plant in El Dorado, the Barton Community College volleyball team rallied on the road to knock off third place Butler Community College 25-16, 23-25, 23-25, 25-22, and 15-10.
The second conference road fifth set victory moves Barton into the third spot of the Jayhawk West at 3-2, improving to 10-6 on the year, with the Cougars snapping Butler's seven match win streak in dropping the Grizzlies to 4-4 in conference and 9-6 overall.
Barton will next step out of conference play for a weekend 4-pack of matches in Arkansas City, Kansas, at the Cowley College Invitational. The Cougars open up play Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. versus Northeastern Oklahoma A&M with a match wait until a 2:00 p.m. scheduled first serve against Central Community College-Columbus. On Saturday Barton again plays the first match of the day with an 8:00 a.m. breakfast affair with Metropolitan Community College-Longview before wrapping up the day with a high noon tangle with Division II No. 11 ranked host Cowley College.
The Cougars took a lead they wouldn't relinquish in the first set at the 7-6 mark on a Mackenzie Pease kill from the court's center. Pease added another after a Migle Mazurkeviciute kill as the duo helped spark a 6-0 run increasing the lead to three. Another five point stretch started by a Victoria O'Keefe attack capped by an assisted block from Agnieska Paskevic and Rayanne de Oliveira ballooned the lead to 14-8. The Cougars kept the margin until a late four-pack of points built a commanding 23-14 advantage before wrapping up the set on an Oliveira punishing kill to center court.
In the second, the Cougars' multiple errors helped Butler put together a 6-0 mid-set run to open up a 16-11 lead. Barton clawed back into the set winning five-of-six points behind Mazurkeviciute and O'Keefe attacks with consecutive solo walls of denial from Oliveira before a Karina de Oliveira ace serve closed the gap to 21-19. As Butler looked to close out the set, Barton took the next two points on an O'Keefe attack and an assisted block by Janessa Walker and R. Oliveira cutting the deficit to one before a dig error gave Butler the victory.
Mazurkeviciute's back row attack ended Butler's 4-0 start to the third set with R. Oliveira's center attack followed by an assisted block teaming with Mazurkeviciute drew Barton to within 4-3. The teams traded points for much of the set as Butler held off Barton's bid to tie up until late in the frame. Three straight points knotted it up at 22 with the set's only other tie coming a point later before Butler tallied the final two points for its second consecutive 25-23 win.
Barton gained some separation early in the fourth behind three straight coming from K. Oliveira's consecutive service aces for the lead and a fly-around-the-court defensive effort forcing a Butler timeout with the Cougars leading 13-9. In a flip-flop of how the third set flowed, this time it was Barton trying to hold off the Grizzlies as Butler scratched its way into a 22-all tie.
Mazurkeviciute, who came up huge for Barton all night, again put the Cougars on the top side of score with a kill down the line. A big double block by Pease and Paskevic followed with the match being forced to the fifth as Butler was whistled for four hits.
A Mazurkeviciute kill gave Barton an 8-7 edge at the fifth set changeover with a Pease kill and a Butler error pushing the lead to four. Consecutive R. Oliveira kills all but put it away as the Cougars scored four of the last five points to win for the second year in a row on the Grizzlies' home court.