The Barton Community College volleyball team took care of a hot Dodge City Community College squad Wednesday night ending the Conquistador seven match win streak with a 3-1 victory in Dodge City 25-23, 21-25, 25-20, and 25-19. The victory pushes Barton over the .500 mark at 11-10 on the season and into the fifth spot in the conference standings at 3-5 while dropping Dodge City to 15-8 on the year and behind the Cougars in the race at 2-5. Barton's next action will come 2:00 p.m. Saturday as Butler Community College comes to the Barton Gym sitting just ahead of the Cougars at 5-3 and 15-6 overall.
"It was a good road conference win," said Head Coach Brandon Stephenson. "The ladies had to fight from start to finish and despite we still have some areas to address before Saturday's match versus Butler, I was pleased with the overall effort and performances throughout the match."
One of those performances was Kailey Harris as the Newton freshman's career night was among three players in double-digit kills leading the Cougars in a .212 attack for the third time in four games. Burying eighteen kills against just two errors on thirty-one swings for a .516 attack, Harris' career high performance was also joined by another career high as fellow freshman Laine Conceicao reached double digit kills for the third time in four matches with thirteen on a .300 attack.
"Kailey Harris was on a mission tonight," Stephenson said. "Putting down eighteen kills was big for us, as was a lot of the performances, but it was nice to see her extra work pay off in helping us get the win."
Sophomore Monique Oliveira nearly joined the career club, falling one kill short finishing the night with twenty-two kills on a sixty-one attempts for a .262 attack. The sophomore from Brazil not only led the squad with kills, but collected a team high twenty-six digs for her sixth double-double performance. Carol Goncalves chalked up her third double-double of her sophomore campaign with a team high thirty-three assists and ten digs while freshman Kaila Harris recorded her second straight double-double putting up twenty-five assists with twenty digs. The duo's execution of the 6-2 accounted for fifty-eight of the squad's season high sixty-three assists.
Barton controlled most of the first set getting out four point lead before a couple of Oliveira kills sparked a 6-0 run pushing the lead out to 21-11. The Conquistadors retaliated with 8-0 counter attack to draw within two before another Oliveira kill halted the stretch as the teams traded points the rest of the way for the 25-23 win.
Dodge City rode the first set momentum into the second putting together a 7-0 early run for a 10-4 lead. The lead extended to eight but like the Conqs in the first set, Barton put together their own surge to keep the set close getting key attacks from Kailey Harris and Conceicao in drawing to within 21-20. Dodge City held off the surge closing out the set scoring four of the next five in winning 25-21 to even the match.
The Cougars found themselves trailing 13-11 in the third before clawing back to tie up four times before taking the lead for good. Getting an assisted block followed by an Oliveira kill, Barton would rattle off the next four points before a Harris' authoritative kill took the score to set point in the 25-20 victory.
An assisted block kept the Barton fire alive in the fourth as the Cougars double upped Dodge City 16-8 with Dodge City burning their second and final timeout of the set. Increasing the lead to nine, the Cougars fought off a 5-0 Conq run with another Oliveira kill leading a three point stretch with an Averie Warehime solo block providing the dagger as Barton would go on for the victory 25-19.