The Barton Community College volleyball team shook off a slow start Monday night at the Barton Gym for a 3-1 victory over Butler Community College.
The Cougars dropped the opening set 25-20 but found enough of a groove to tie the match with a 25-17 win before taking care of the night with twin 25-18 scores.
Trailing conference front running Seward County by a half a game, Barton improves to 5-1 in league play and 13-3 overall while Butler drops to 4-4 and 9-6 on the season.
The victory also sets up a big conference match at 6:30 p.m. Thursday as Barton welcomes the hottest team in the league in Hutchinson Community College. Receiving votes in the latest Division I poll, the Blue Dragons come to the Barton Gym on an eight match win streak and nipping at Barton's heels in the conference standings at 7-2 and 14-5 overall.
Two Cougars put up double-double performances Monday night. Guiding the 6-2 offense to a .248 attack, Isabella Guedes posted her fourth of the season with a 25 assist and 13 dig performance, to go along with, two of the Cougars' ten service aces. Mylena Testoni was one of three Cougars with double digit kills in posting 10 on a .296 attack while collecting 15 digs for her second straight double-double and third in the last three matches.
Tasiah Nunnery led with 12 kills and three service aces while Maria Santos had 11 kills on a .306 attack.
Addison Crites put up four walls of denials to lead the Cougars' twelve total. Hanna Miller led the back line with eighteen digs and Alyssa Herter rotated with Guedes in putting up 15 assists.
Recap
Barton got off to a slow start as Butler would methodically build out a five point margin midway through the set. Behind a pair of Testoni attacks, the Cougars closed to within three at 15-12 and later at 21-18 but the Grizzlies only allowed the Cougars multiple points twice in the set.
The Cougars got off to a better start in the second, a near mirror of Butler's early seize of the opening set. A 9-2 Barton stretch mid-set helped gain separation but like the Cougars in the first set, the Grizzlies hung within striking distance until a pivotal late set point. With the Cougars leading 20-16 and Butler seemingly gaining momentum, a back corner laid out dig by Miller kept the pivotal point alive with Herter making a subsequent impressive diving lunge near the net, and Nunnery finished off the trio of hustling effort with a bump over the net. Barton won the point and opened up a five instead of three point lead, propelling the Cougars down the stretch as Santos' kill led a four point closeout to even the match.
Crites' attack keyed an early 5-0 third set run as Barton jumped out to a 10-2 lead. Butler later countered with their own five straight in closing to 16-14 only to see the Cougars respond with four straight to win the race to twenty at 20-14. Two straight by Butler sliced the margin to four but consecutive Testoni kills pushed the gap back out with Joelle LaForce finishing off the set with Barton's final three kills.
Needing to win the fourth to extend the match, Butler raced out to a 7-3 lead before LaForce and Nunnery began reclaiming the battle of the net leading Barton back to a 7-all tie. The set was tied again at 9-all before Butler took four of the next five to surge ahead 13-10. From there it was all Cougars with a Nunnery kill and service ace within five straight surging ahead 15-13. Following a Butler timeout, the Cougars kept the foot on the pedal with another five straight on Santos' kill and another Nunnery ace in ballooning the margin out to 20-13. Butler sliced into the lead a couple of times to get within five but it was too little too late, as Jadyn Brown helped put the final touches on the match on her seventh kill in tying LaForce's total.