9th ranked Barton sweeps Hutchinson, Cougars clinch KJCCC title for second straight year #GoBarton

The 9th ranked Barton Community College volleyball team stayed the course Wednesday evening on home court to complete the season sweep over Hutchinson Community College (25-12, 25-23, 25-13).

Following the conclusion and receiving news of No. 7 Colby's loss at Garden City, Barton clinched atleast a share of the KJCCC crown for the second straight year while locking up the top seed and host privileges throughout the Region 6/Plains District Tournament.

The 11th conference and 22nd sweep of the season improves Barton to 14-1 in league play and 27-2 overall as Hutchinson falls to 7-8 in the KJCCC and 19-19 on the season.

Barton concludes its regular season slate on Saturday in a 3:00 p.m. first serve at Cloud County before setting sites on the post-season beginning Wednesday, November 6.

Honoring its nine sophomores prior to the match, each added contributions to the night with Kassidy Nixon leading all players with 13 kills in completing her 12th double-double of the year by recording 13 digs.

Naya Danenberg led the backline with a perfect 17 service receives and a career high 22 digs with the reigning conference Defensive Player of the Week Mina Kaneko recording 10 digs.

The Cougars were below their season average attack percentage for the evening, finishing at .200 sandwiching a .257 opening and .341 closing set with a .041, 11-error second set.

Phoebe Reyes had 8 kills as did Mya Thompson with 8 kills on a .280 efficiency followed by Anna Wierzbicki's 7 kills behind a .312 percentage. Sara Zuluaga Nohava made her first court appearance in 21 days producing 3 kills on 7 swings for a .429 night.

Coach Besecker maneuvered multiple lineups and substitutions throughout the night including the switch in rotation of the 6-2 setters as Maurin Reyes led the first wave with 27 assists as Elena Stankovic's guided the second wave producing 14 assists.

Wierzbicki's career high 5 services aces also led the strong serving game of 11 total from the Cougars, Kaneko adding three with Danenberg, Nixon, and M. Reyes each adding one.

RECAP
Following Hutchinson putting the first two points on the board, the Cougars grabbed the next eight points sparked by a pair of Wierzbicki service aces. Interrupted by two straight from the Blue Dragons, continued to roll stringing stretches four straight a pair of three in a row building a 20-9 lead in going on to win by thirteen on a 3-0 closeout.

A Barton 5-0 run broke away from the sixth tie of the second set coming at 8-all. As Hutchinson's two consecutive put the deficit to 11-10, another five-pack of points appeared to set the stage for another blowout win. Hutchinson stayed in the fight behind a 4-0 run with a trio of tallies later drawing within 21-20 but a pair of costly attack errors helped Barton go on to win the set as Wierzbicki's middle attack followed by her then 4th ace of the match clinched the set.

Barton all but put any Hutchinson hopes to bed early in the third frame, scoring seven straight for a 9-1 lead while building a 16-4 advantage before the Blue Dragons could string multiple points together.

The Cougars closed out the evening festivities with the final three points in locking up its fourth straight victory of the series.