The Barton Community College Volleyball team reached down deep Wednesday at the Barton Gym and pulled out a fifth set victory over Garden City Community College 25-19, 20-25, 22-25, 25-19, and 16-14. The win improves the Cougars to 4-6 in conference play and 8-18 overall while dropping Garden City to 3-7 in conference and 5-15 overall. Barton will hit the road for its next two games starting with Dodge City Community College on October 15 followed by a date two days later at Pratt Community College.
The Cougars dug Garden City a nine point deficit as Mackenzie Orchard and Jori Mote knocked down kills for a 12-3 lead. The Busters climbed back in the set with a pair of five-point runs to tie it at eighteen and again at nineteen before the Cougars closed out with six straight to take the set 25-19.
Behind the powerful spikes of Chinasa Ekweriri, Garden City scored the second set's first eight points before three Buster errors and a Lakyn Rowden diving save helped ignite Barton on a 12-5 run to pull within 13-12. Garden City responded with the next six points prompting a Barton timeout to which a Mote kill and Jenna Reid block brought the Cougars back to within four at 19-15. The teams traded points the rest of the way until a Dominique Mays kill ended the set in favor of the Busters 25-20.
Two kills each from McKenzie Piland and Reed got the Cougars off to an 8-3 start to the third before a Garden City 8-1 run turned the score to the Busters 11-9. After trading points, an 8-2 Buster run put the Cougars in a 20-13 hole before two Piland kills helped bring Barton to within one at 19-20. Barton would again draw to within one but a two-point string down the stretch by the Busters proved the difference as Garden City took the match advantage with a 25-22 score.
Both teams had trouble stringing together multiple points in the fourth until a 6-0 Barton run erased a point deficit into a 15-11 lead. Led by Mote's five kills in the set, the Cougars never let Garden City any closer than three as Barton tied the match with a 25-19 win.
A 4-0 run gave Garden City the early 6-3 lead in the fifth and appeared to be in control leading 11-8. After Barton Head Coach Phil Shoemaker utilized his second timeout, Reed's kill coupled with a pair of Piland spikes sparked the Cougars to tie it up at twelve a piece. Coming out of a Garden City timeout, the Buster duo of Ekweariri and Mays reclaimed the lead and set up match point at 14-13. The Busters couldn't convert as Barton benefitted by a service error to tie and a hitting error to reclaim the lead at 15-14. Following Garden City's second timeout, the Cougar defense set up Mote for the match winning kill as Barton fought back for the 16-14 win.
Mote and Piland led the offensive attack with eighteen kills each hitting .314 and .229 respectively. Kiara Revera led with twenty digs while the setting duo of Lakyn Rowden and Casey Friesen combined for fifty-one assists.