The Barton Community College volleyball team picked up their fifth straight road conference win of the season as the Cougars won 3-1 at Pratt Community College (25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 25-18)
The win helps solidify Barton's sole possession of third place in the Jayhawk West at 8-2 and 18-10 overall while Pratt drops to 2-11 and 6-21. Next up is a Saturday trip to Seward County Community College for a 6:30 p.m. first serve against the nationally third ranked Saints.
Unofficial stat counts on the night had Rayanne de Oliveira recording a career high twenty-six kills with just four errors on a workload effort of forty-two attempts. The red hot sophomore exceeded a .500 attack percentage for the third time in the last four matches as her .524 percentage led the Cougars to a team cumulative of .304. Agnieska Paskevic also posted a career high total, putting up a personal best fifty-four assists while adding thirteen digs for her thirteenth double-double of the season.
Migle Mazurkeviciute put away twelve of the Cougars' fifty-five kills with another ten coming from Mackenzie Pease on an efficient .714 attack percentage.
Eduarda Souza led the net defense with four blocks while Karina de Oliveira flew around the court for twenty-six digs.
Barton climbed out of an early four point deficit that grew to five mid-way through the frame behind the beginning of a career night performance from R. Oliveira. Putting down a couple of thunderous attacks and teaming with Mazurkeviciute on a block to spark the Cougars, Souza's solo wall of denial followed by a Pratt attack error tied things up at 20. Losing the next point, Barton wouldn't be denied down the stretch winning 5-of-the-last-6 to take the match lead.
Pratt would get the equalizer in winning the second set 25-23, breaking it open with a 5-0 mid-frame spurt to erase an 11-all tie. Barton would climb back to make it interesting cutting the deficit to one twice before getting an R. Oliveira and Victoria O'Keefe consecutive kills to tie it up at 22. A line call going against the Cougars led to two straight by Pratt with Barton again cutting it back to one before the final point went to the Beavers.
Third set action was all Cougars as R. Oliveira accounted for Barton's first six points, putting down four attacks to go along with a pair of assisted blocks with Souza. O'Keefe followed with a service ace and two Mazurkeviciute attacks opened the margin to 9-2 prompting a Pratt timeout. Barton continued to roll on, pushing the lead out twelve in cruising to the eleven point win and match advantage.
The Cougars stayed sharp and focused on ending the match in four sets, indicative of the defensive diving efforts by K. Oliveira, Mazurkeviciute, and Paskevic to save a point sparking a 3-0 run capped by R. Oliveira center attack off the block putting Barton out front 13-11. Souza's solo block coming out of Pratt's timeout kept the momentum rolling with attacks by O'Keefe and R. Oliveira followed by a Paskevic service ace expanded the margin behind the 10-0 run to a 20-11 lead. A Pratt spurt of five straight points cut the deficit to four but kills by Oliveira and Mazurkeviciute took the wind out of the sails as Barton went on to clinch the match on the seven point differential.