From the net to the service line, Wednesday's trip to Hutchinson didn't go as planned as too many errors built a hill too high to climb as the Barton Community College volleyball team's error-filled evening compounded by a determined Hutchinson Community College squad sent the Cougars back home in straight sets 25-16, 27-25, and 25-17.
Barton slides to 4-11 in league play and 17-13 on the season while Hutchinson improves to 12-3 and 25-10 overall.
The Cougars close out the regular season and home slate with "Sophomore Night" this Saturday in a 6:30 p.m. first serve hosting Dodge City Community College.
A night of twenty-one attack errors within the team's thirty total stat miscues, the Cougars' .056 percentage was boosted in the middle by Molly Norris' team leading 8 kills on a .167 attack. Norris added a service ace and three assisted blocks as did Buse Kocakaya who also contributed 4 kills. Tasiah Nunnery finished with 7 kills and 8 digs while Hanna Miller and Clara Lindstrom recorded 20 and 10 digs respectively.
Barton grabbed its lone lead of the first set on Norris' kill to open up the evening's scoring with Hutchinson taking the next four in surging ahead. Following Ella Rumford's kill, the Blue Dragons increased the margin behind a trio of points but the Cougars kept it in reach behind a pair of Kocakaya attacks drawing to within 10-7. The gap held at four until a Hutchinson 7-1 stretch busted open the set in rolling out to the nine point win.
The Blue Dragons carried the momentum early into the second by grabbing the first three points but Nunnery's pair of attacks flip the score headlining a 5-0 spurt. Later tied at nine, Nunnery's consecutive kills put Barton back out front then the Hays sophomore broke another tie with a solo block for a 12-11 lead. Hutchinson responded with two straight, tacking on four more following an attack error in putting the home team ahead on scoreboard at 17-13.
Giving the Cougars a spark off the bench, Jaden Boden immediately made her presence felt with a kill before teaming up with Norris for an assisted block sparking a trio of points getting back into the set. Still finding itself later trailing by two, Nunnery's kill and Hutchinson's rotation error tied it at 23 with Norris' kill following a Hutchinson timeout gaving the Cougars set point. A costly service error spoiled the win but Nunnery's sixth kill of the set again put Barton on the brink of victory. Hutchinson executed on the offensive end for the final tie as a Barton ball handling error and a losing battle at the net resulted in the Blue Dragons taking a 2-0 match lead.
Norris' pair of attacks and block teamed with Kocakaya got the Cougars off to a good third set start leading 4-1. But from there it was all Blue Dragons, rattling off six straight with a Barton timeout doing little to slow them down in tacking on another four points for an 11-4 lead. Beatriz Rissi's kill followed by a pair of Blue Dragon errors cut the deficit to four but it would be as close Barton would get the rest of the way. Hutchinson took the next two, briefly interrupted by Darby Smith's kill, before rattling off the next six in opening a 19-8 lead.
Barton outscored the Blue Dragons by three the rest of the set, one of those points coming on Nunnery's service ace moving into a 13th place tie on the program career chart in joining Juliana da Barros' 104 total from the 2010-11 seasons.
Record Book Watch
Hanna Miller:
- 1st in career digs with 1,690
- 18th in service aces with 94, 1 shy of Alik Cardoso da Sa's 95 total from 2006-2007 seasons
Tasiah Nunnery:
- 4th in career digs with 1100, 117 shy of Karina de Oliveira's 1217 from the 2018-2019 season
- 10th in career kills with 777, 1 shy of Kara Robeson's 778 from the 2006-2007 season, 5 shy of Alexis Shepherd's 782 from the 1994-1995 seasons
- Tied for 13th in service aces with 104, tied with Juliana da Barros from 2010-2011 seasons, 4 shy of Nicole Harris' 108 from the 1992-1993 seasons