It may have been "Pink Night" at The Greenhouse but the Barton Community College volleyball team was left a little black and blue Saturday night in Liberal as the 3rd ranked Saints of Seward County Community College rolled to a straight set win 25-14, 25-13, and 25-16.
Despite the loss Barton remains in third place by three matches at 8-3 and 18-11 with Seward County holding a match lead atop the standings improving to 12-1 and 22-2 on the year.
Barton's next action kicks off a weeklong three-match homestand, beginning with their own "Dig Pink Night" on Monday's 6:30 p.m. first serve against fourth place Butler Community College followed by Wednesday's hosting of second place Colby and Monday's, October 28, match against current fifth place Hutchinson.
Eduarda Souza helped account for back-to-back points to tie the first set at 12 with the teams trading service errors on the next pair of points. From there a five point Saint spurt prompted a Barton timeout, tacking on another for an even six-pack before Mackenzie Pease' kill put a temporary stopper in the dam. Six of the last nine points would go on the home team's side of the scoreboard putting the Saints' eight point win up a tally in the match count.
Taking six-of-seven early in the second including a four point stretch to force a Cougar timeout, a trio of points following Migle Mazurkeviciute's kill pushed Seward County's lead out to 13-6. Barton would hang around to cut it five after a kill by Victoria O'Keefe and Agnieska Paskevic's service ace, but the Saints put the throttle down rattling off six straight. Coming out of Barton's final timeout, the Cougars would string together multiple points for just the third time of the set as Rayanne de Oliveira put an attack down the line before providing a key block on the next point but was little resistance as the Saints would allow just two more points in winning 25-13.
Souza' attack halted the Saints' 4-0 start to the final set, with attacks from Mazurkeviciute and Oliveira drawing Barton to within one. Later in the set Mazurkeviciute would later show off some airtime diversity, changing arm attacks in mid-air to place a left-handed kill into the Bermuda triangle before unleashing a more traditional "Migle Missile" for the next point bringing Barton to within 12-11. Four straight, interrupted by a Barton timeout before tacking on another point after the sixty second rest pushed the Saints' lead out to 17-11. Pease stopped the five point stretch by hammering a center attack floor punisher off a great Paskevic one-handed jump set before providing the solo wall of denial cutting margin back to four. Seward County kept the Cougars at bay the rest of the match including sealing the series' thirteenth straight win by capturing the final five points.
Barton was held to its second lowest attack percentage of the season, hitting at just .053 with twenty errors on its ninety-five attacks. Mazurkeviciute led with eight kills, to go along with ten digs, while Oliveira had a four match double-digit kill streak snapped as the Saints held her in check for six after recording just five kills in the teams' first meeting. Paskevic put up twenty-four assists with Karina de Oliveira leading the back line with eighteen digs.