The Barton Community College volleyball team rallied from two sets down Monday night at the Colby Community Building to prevail in a fifth set thriller to defeat Colby Community College 21-25, 12-25, 25-17, 25-10, and 16-14.
Playing four sets on Friday evening at the Barton Gym, the teams dominated each of their pair of set victories before battling point for point down the stretch with the Cougars' coming out on top in the fifth to sweep the series.
The victory extends Barton's win streak to ten straight, improving to 21-3 on the year while controlling their conference title destiny atop the standings at 13-1. Colby remains in the fourth spot of the standings slipping to 8-6 and 11-7 on the year.
Colby had the Cougars on their heels in the first two sets as the Trojans never trailed in pounding out a pair of 25-12 wins. The Trojans buried Barton with a 14-3 start leading to an 18-5 advantage in the first set then broke away from a five point second set in outscoring the Cougars 11-3 the rest of the way.
Through multiple lineup switches, the deep and talented Cougars kept their composure and began to click in the third, taking their first lead of the match on Addison Crites' pounding of an overhit for a 2-1 lead. A Hanna Miller service ace later pushed the margin to four with the back breaker coming on a 6-1 stretch with Maria Santos and Mylena Testoni kills helping to build an 18-10 lead. Colby cut the deficit to six but three straight kills by Tasiah Nunnery, Carol Melo, and Santos helped ice the set in the seven point win.
Nunnery and Joelle LaForce provided the early momentum builder in the fourth as the Cougars raced out to a 10-1 lead. Following three straight from the Trojans, Santos and Nunnery led another 6-0 spurt digging Colby a 17-4 hole. Barton put the final touches on the fifth set forcer in taking five of the last seven for the big margin win.
Colby regrouped for the deciding fifth set, taking the first four points before again leading by four at 6-2. Beginning with a LaForce kill and a Colby attack error the momentum seemed to be swinging but Colby temporarily held off the charge taking two of the next three for an 8-5 lead.
A kill by Testoni followed by a pair of Santos attacks tied it up but the Cougars fell on the wrong side of a couple of calls in falling behind at 10-9.
The fifth set featured six ties, with Colby fighting off two match points to tie it for the last time at 14-all before LaForce and Santos kills gave Barton the victory.
Statistics will be posted late Tuesday.
Note:
Barton applauds the character of the Trojan volleyball program under the guidance of Head Coach Carey Jones and Assistant Coach Shelby Gardner. In a behind the scenes news story, the Cougars arrived to their locker room to find heartwarming notes of encouragement from the Trojans due to a personal family situation of a Barton player. At the conclusion of the match, dealing with their own personal family situation and coming off the tough home court loss, the Trojans invited the Cougars to a huddle of prayer and positive thoughts. For moments thereafter, members of each team stood intermingled locked arm-and-arm with a final embrace before departing.