The Barton Community College volleyball team's rally fell short Wednesday evening at the Barton Gym as Garden City Community College won in five 15-25, 29-27, 25-21, 21-25, and 15-11.
The Cougars' loss to Garden City was the first in the lopsided historical series, snapping Barton's 45 match and 17 home match streak against the Broncbusters.
Barton also drops to 2-5 in conference action and 13-5 overall while Garden City ends their three match drought improving to 4-4 in league and 16-7 on the season.
The Cougars next two matches are on the road beginning on Monday at Pratt Community College followed by a Wednesday trip to Dodge City Community College. A 6:30 p.m. first serve is slated for each contest.
Tasiah Nunnery posted her second straight double-double, leading the Cougars with 12 kills on a season high 62 attacks and recording 16 digs, to go along with, a pair of assisted blocks. Despite the team committing 25 attack errors leading to a hitting percentage of just .143, Molly Norris had a solid evening in the middle with 9 kills on a .333 attack and chalking up five blocks, two solo and three assisted.
Hanna Miller anchored the backline with 29 digs with Jadyn Brown collecting 18. Iris Oosterbaan put up 42 assists, just missing a double-double in finishing with 9 digs.
The first set was all Cougars, breaking a 7-all score with an 8-0 run highlighted by a Norris solo block and pair of kills. Taking four of the next five points, Barton's lead ballooned to 19-9 as the Cougars would ride out the set on the ten point margin.
Barton continued to roll in the second, going on a 6-0 spurt to building what seemed to be an insurmountable lead of 19-10 getting four kills from Jada Davis and a pair from Norris. From that point the Cougars played sloppy while the Broncbusters capitalized with seven straight to tighten the set. Barton held off the charge, pushing the lead to 24-20 but couldn't close the deal. Garden City fought back, getting help from two Barton attack errors, to tie it up at 24. Barton grabbed the next point but again the set point fell by the wayside after two straight Broncbuster points. Nunnery's attack tied it at 26 and after the Broncbusters gained another set point, Garden City gave the point back on a service error tying it at 27 but completed the comeback with the final two points including the set clinching service ace.
Neither team could pull away in the third set, battling back and forth with eleven ties. The pivotal point occurred after Barton gained their last lead at 18-17 as Garden City surged ahead on a 4-0 run and held off the Cougars in taking the match lead on the 25-21 victory.
The Cougars regrouped for the fourth, grabbing early control behind a 4-0 run then stringing a trio of three-point stretches to build a 22-15 advantage. Similar to the second set, Garden City fought back on a late 4-0 run to cut the deficit to three but the Cougars didn't falter this time, holding off the charge to force a fifth set on the four point victory.
The Broncbusters jumped out to a 4-0 lead but three errors and a Nunnery-Norris wall of denial tied it up at four. Trading the next three points, Nunnery's kill and blockade with Beatriz Rissi surged Barton in front 8-6 at the changeover. The Cougars' lead went to three on the next point but after a Garden City timeout, the Broncbusters took five of the next six points to grab an 11-10 lead. Brown's attack tied it up but it was the last of the home team's points as the Broncbusters rattled off the final four points to complete the match taking 7-of-the-last-8 points to earn the historical victory.