It took five sets but the Barton Community College volleyball team picked up a much needed victory Wednesday at Colby Community College 26-24, 25-17, 25-20, 22-25, and 15-13.
Rebounding from a home loss the last time on the court, Barton's third straight road win on Colby's home floor improves the Cougars to 2-3 in conference play and 13-3 on the year while the Trojans slip to 2-6 in league and 10-6 overall.
The Cougars have two home matches next on the schedule beginning Monday hosting 17th ranked Hutchinson Community College followed by Garden City Community College coming to the Barton Gym on Wednesday. First serve for both matches is 6:30 p.m. with free admission to attendees.
Buse Kocakaya led the Cougars with 12 kills followed by Jada Davis' 10 kills on a team leading .242 attack. Jadyn Brown posted her first double-double since the second match of the season, recording 10 kills and a season best 17 digs, to go along with a three service aces, as Tasiah Nunnery came up just shy of the double-double with 9 kills and 17 digs. Molly Norris led the net defense with 7 assisted blocks while Hanna Miller protected the back line with a team high 25 digs. Iris Oosterbaan led the Cougars' 5-1 attack to a .157 percentage, putting up 41 assists and collecting 13 digs for the freshman's fifth double-double effort of the year.
The first set gave a glimpse of what was in store for the night, a back-n-forth opener where neither team could gain much separation. A 4-0 run gave Colby an early edge but consecutive Kocakaya attacks and a Miller service ace answered with a Cougar four point spurt in taking the lead at 14-13. Barton held a handful of two-point leads the rest of the way, including set point at 24-22, but a pair of attack errors aided the Trojans' comeback with the final four points to steal the set.
Leading by one early in the second, Barton broke away in part to Colby's mistakes as the Trojans committed a combination of five service and attack errors leading to five of six points going on the Cougars' side of the scoreboard. As the teams cleaned up the play, a pair of Kocakaya kills and a Nunnery kill pushed the lead to its largest of eight at 18-10. The gap closed to six until a Trojans' ball handling error and Norris' pair of attacks widened the lead to 22-13 in rolling out to tie the match.
A stoppage of play late in the second due to a Colby injury and a subsequent sportsmanship timeout called by the Cougars' Head Coach Alan Segal, curbed the tempo of the match's tying set leading to a slow start for both teams beginning the third.
Trading a two-pack of points to open the set, a combination of Colby errors and Kocakaya's resurgence at the net, Barton pulled away with six straight. Davis and Brown later each added a pair of kills to balloon the score to 13-5. The Trojans fought back with five of six points to slice it to 14-10 but a Kocakaya and Davis block followed by Oosterbaan's ace pushed the margin back out. Colby had one more run in them with a 4-1 spurt in drawing to within three but Davis chalked up a couple more court punishers leading the five point win and match lead.
With all the momentum of the match, Barton rolled out to a seven point lead in the fourth but couldn't hold on as the Trojans fired back to force a decisive set.
In the fifth Barton scored the first three points and never trailed. Later leading at the exchange by three, Davis' kill quickly pushed it to four prompting a Colby timeout. The Trojans responded with four of the next five with Norris' providing a pivotal block keeping Barton on top. The lead went back to two following a Brown kill but Colby would fight back with three of the next four points for the set's lone tie coming at 13-all. Not to be denied, Davis then Nunnery provided the final kills to cap the night for the Cougars' third straight win on the Trojans' home court.