Digging early set deficits left the Barton Community College Volleyball team trying to climb out of a hole all night as the Blue Dragons of Hutchinson Community College held off all Cougar rallies Monday night for a conference sweep at the Barton Gym 25-12, 25-18, and 25-21. The loss drops Barton to 1-5 in Jayhawk play and 9-10 on the year while the nationally receiving votes Blue Dragons recover from their first conference loss on Saturday improving to 5-1 and 9-5 on the season. The Cougars' next action comes Saturday in hosting Garden City Community College in a 2:00 p.m. first serve.
As the Cougars struggled throughout the first set hitting just .033, Hutchinson assumed early command with a trio of three point stretches to lead 11-4. Following a lone Barton point, the Blue Dragons would breathe fire outscoring the Cougars 7-1 blowing open the set 18-6 in cruising to the 25-12 win.
Barton began the second a lot better than the first trailing 7-5 but four straight and seven of the next eight gave Hutchinson early command at 14-8. Trading the next points, the Cougars climbed back to with three behind a 6-1 run but Hutchinson would take three of the next four in holding off the surge before later putting another trio of points on the board going on to the seven point winning margin.
A pair of two point stretches for Barton on either side of a Hutchinson four point run left the early third set briefly locked at four before the Blue Dragons took five straight points for a 9-4 lead. Trading the next eight points, Barton closed to within 14-12 with a 4-1 stretch before Hutchinson regrouped rattling off six straight to win the race to twenty in owning a 20-12 lead. Trailing the match and with the Blue Dragons having all the momentum, the Cougars didn't lie down but rather fought back behind five straight closing within three but it was as close as they would come as Hutchinson held off the rally for the four point victory.
Laine Conceicao led the kill column with ten on just a .030 attack as the Cougars finished with a .059 percentage on twenty-eight kills while committing twenty-two errors. Fellow freshman Ariana Taylor put down five of nine swings for a bright spot in the offensive category combining with Averie Warehime and Kailey Harris to produce ten kills out of the middle while Monique Oliveira added six from the outside.