After thirteen matches on the road, the Barton Community College volleyball team took advantage of finally playing on its home court with a sweep Wednesday night over Pratt Community College 25-9, 26-24, and 25-18.
The victory was also the first in conference play, improving to 1-2 in league and 12-2 overall. Pratt leaves the Barton Gym still searching for its first conference win in dropping to 0-4 and 1-6 on the season.
Next up for the Cougars is another home match in welcoming defending Region VI Champions Butler Community College in a 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening first serve.
Running a 6-2 offense throughout the evening, Iris Oosterbaan led the Cougars with 30 assists as the team hit for a season high .375 attack.
Buse Kocakaya led with 13 kills on a .455 attack, Tasiah Nunnery had 9 kills, and Jada Davis was a menace at the net in recording 9 kills on a .692 attack and two blocks.
Hanna Miller led the back line effort with 12 digs and a team high four aces while Nunnery had three.
A 14-0 run buried Pratt in the first set, Nunnery's attack getting the stretch started with Miller serving up a trio of aces and Nunnery adding in a couple additional kills as the Cougars raced out to a 16-3 lead. Barton would later string another four points together with Molly Norris' attack the highlight as the Cougars rolled to the big win.
The Beavers seized early momentum in the second behind a six-pack of points, leading by as much as five at 11-6. Eliminating the early set errors, Barton began to respond on consecutive Tatum Boettjer thundering attacks igniting the team in closing within one. Pratt held off Barton's attempts to grab the lead until the wall of denial teamwork from Davis and Oosterbann kickstarted a four-point stretch to flip the scoreboard to a three-point home lead. Davis continued to own the net for two additional kills, getting her hands in the mix of 5-of-7 points resulting in a 22-19 lead. Beatriz Rissi connected on a couple kills to temporarily hold off a Pratt surge until a 3-0 Beaver spurt tied it up at 24 but Kocakaya closed the door on back-to-back court punishers for the two set match lead.
The third featured eight ties, the last coming at 18 all as Barton would roll up seven of the last eight points to clinch the match. Norris led the late surge with a pair of attacks to finish with four on the night, as did Darby Smith with identical nine attempts.
All fourteen active players saw court time throughout the night including Bennie Horsch making her Cougar debut following injury to post a six assist and four dig performance.
Record Book Watch
Hanna Miller:
1st in career digs with 1,453
Tasiah Nunnery:
5th in career digs with 921, 93 shy of Mylena Testoni's 1014 total from the 2020 and 2021 seasons.