Barton Volleyball advances to host weekend's Region 6/Plains District Championship Tournament #GoBarton

The 7th ranked Barton Community College volleyball team took care of first round playoff business in straight sets Wednesday evening over Pratt Community College (25-14, 25-20, 25-13).

The victory assures the top seeded Cougars' hosting privileges at the Barton Gym this weekend for the semifinal and championship rounds of the Region 6/Plains District Tournament.

Improving to 29-2 on the season behind its 24th sweep, Barton will next play fifth seeded Garden City in the 4:00 p.m. Saturday semifinal as Pratt has the season come to an end at 7-23.

In the other semifinal, second seeded Colby and third seeded Dodge City square off in the 6:30 p.m. contest. Victors of each match advance to Sunday's 2:00 p.m. Championship match with an automatic NJCAA Division I Tournament bid additionally awarded to the winner.

Ticket prices for the tournament are $10 per person each day with ages 5 and under admitted free. Complete information can be found at BartonSports.com or at kjccc.org.

Twelve Cougars contributed to the short night of .330 efficiency led by the .700 attack from Anna Wierzbicki's 8 kills on 10 swings. Reigning KJCCC Player of the Week Kassidy Nixon put together a .571 night in matching Phoebe Reyes for team high 9 kills each. Reyes led the blocking at the net with 3 assisted while Nixon helped protect the backline with 10 digs in just missing her 13th double-double of the year.

Joining Nixon on backline protection duty, Mina Kaneko led with 14 digs as Naya Danenberg collected 12.

Setters Elena Stankovic and Maurin Reyes keyed the offense with 21 and 14 assists respectively.

Ranked 6th nationally in serving aces per set, the Cougars chalked up 10 total on the evening. Wierzbicki leading with 3 with Kaneko, Nixon, and M. Reyes serving up two each as Danenberg collected the other.

RECAP
Breaking away from a 10-8 first set advantage with three straight within a 7-1 stretch, Barton outscored the Beavers 8-2 the rest of the way including a six-point closeout.

The Beavers countered Barton's early 6-0 run in the second with four straight to close within at 8-7. Four straight by the Cougars increased the margin but still only led by three at the 15-12 mark. Barton fired back with a four-pack of tallies to gain separation, answering another Pratt 4-point spurt to hold off the charge for the eventual seven-point winning margin.

Like the second frame, an early 6-0 run building an 8-2 lead indicated no letdown by the Cougars to later go on an 8-1 stretch increasing the deficit to 20-6 on the scoreboard in all but sealing Barton's 16th straight win of the series.