The Barton Community College volleyball team opened its 2022 season impressively this weekend in Rockford, Illinois, in taking all four matches of the Classic.
On Friday the Cougars had a great start to the new season with a sweep over Lake Land College 25-13, 25-8, and 25-20. Following a short rest the Cougars then took on Division II No. 7 ranked Heartland Community College, winning the first two sets 27-25 and 25-23 but dropping the third 25-20 before bouncing back dispatching the Hawks 25-20.
Saturday's matches included a pair of sweeps, the morning victory coming over Williston State College 25-21 and a pair of 25-15 set scores with the afternoon's weekend wrap-up coming over Rend Lake College 25-18, 25-20, and 25-23.
Barton's next matches are in Norfolk, Nebraska, beginning Thursday with a 6:00 p.m. match at Northeast Community College before a pair of Friday matches in Northeast's Classic. On Friday, the Cougars will have Division II No. 8 ranked Kirkwood Community College at 12:00 p.m. followed by a 2:00 p.m. match versus Central Community College.
The start to the season produced a .234 attack in Friday's action as the Cougar defense put up 19 blocks and served up 12 aces.
Jadyn Brown led the team in the pair of games with 18 kills, a team high seven coming in the opener before recording a double-double in the afternoon matinee against Heartland on an 11 kill and 14 dig performance. Also against Heartland, Tasiah Nunnery added the Cougars' second double-double with 11 kills and 26 digs.
Barton protected the net well, especially against Heartland with ten blocks. Jada Davis accounted for five blocks and 10 kills as Molly Norris had four while becoming the fourth Cougar with double digit kills by tying for team high honors with 11. Rejecting a team high six blocks, Buse Kocakaya just missed become the third double-double performer in pounding out 9 kills with 19 digs while adding three service aces to add to her box score.
Ytje Oosterbaan keyed the offense with 66 assists in the two matches, to go along with three aces. Hanna Miller led the backline effort with 49 digs in the seven sets played.
Playing the full roster on Friday, the rotation continued on Saturday as the Cougars had more of balanced stat sheet while limiting errors improving to a .268 attack, complimented by 18 blocks and 14 aces.
Kocakaya led the two matches with 18 kills, eleven coming in the weekend finale versus Rend Lake behind a .435 attack. Defensively at the net, Beatriz Rissi had 11 blocks with Jaden Boden collecting four in the finale.
The back line was again Miller, tacking on 39 digs to her career total moving into the No. 2 all-time slot with 1254 to surpass All-America performer Karina de Oliveira's 1217 total and stand 107 shy of Cristin Haines' 1361.
Oosterbaan totaled 48 assists in Saturday's matches with Nunnery adding 10.
As a team the Cougars surpassed their Friday total at the service line, chalking up 14 in the six sets after serving up 12 on day one.
Record Book Watch
Hanna Miller:
2nd in career digs with 1254, 107 shy of Cristin Haines' 1361 total from the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Tasiah Nunnery:
7th in career digs with 822, 32 shy of Kiara Rivera's 854 total from the 2012 and 2013 seasons.