The Barton Community College volleyball team's season ended Friday evening at the NJCAA Division I Volleyball National Tournament held in West Plains, Missouri.
The No. 14 seeded Cougars fell for the second consecutive day as No. 10 seeded Northeastern Junior College defeated Barton in four sets 26-28, 25-27, 25-19 and 15-25. Northeastern would go on to win the 9th place match in dispatching the home squad West Plains in four sets as well.
The loss caps a remarkable year for the Region VI/West Plains District Champions ending its' season with a 25-6 mark in the program's nation leading 23 championship tournament appearance.
Carol Melo led the Cougars with 14 kills and 6 blocks, hitting at .545 percentage as the team overall posted its second consecutive worst offensive percentage of the year. Hitting just .095 against the eventual national runner-up Snow College in the opening round, the Cougars mustered just a .114 attack committing a season high 35 hitting errors compiled by 8 service errors and four combined blocking and ball handling errors.
Barton had a pair of double-double performances to wrap up the season, Tasiah Nunnery with 11 kills and 14 digs while Mylena Testoni had 10 kills and 21 digs. Hanna Miller led the back line with 25 digs. Isabella Guedes led three Barton setters with 27 assists as Alyssa Herter and Kristen Jankowski each put up ten.
RECAP
Each of the opening sets were point-for-point, with the outcome boiling down to who made the critical plays or errors when it mattered the most as Northeastern grabbed a two match lead.
In the opening set trailing 1-0, Barton rallied four straight sparked by a pair of Nunnery service aces. The Cougars maintained the lead through the midway point but a 5-0 Northeastern run reversed momentum with the Plainswomen grasping their first lead since 1-0. Later trailing 20-17, Barton strung three straight behind a Santos kill and assisted blocked with Melo, tying it up at 20 following a Northeastern miscue. Coming out of their timeout, Northeastern answered with four of the next six, looking to take the set at 24-22. Testoni and the Cougars had other ideas as Testoni scored two straight and Northeastern's third and final attack error knotting things back up at 25-25. Barton gained their own set point following Joelle LaForce's but couldn't get the clincher as the Plainswomen scored three of the next four points for the victory.
The critical second set became a seesaw battle as the biggest lead in the set came with Barton on top 13-11 until matching it at 24-22 on a Santos' laser kill. Committing 13 attack errors in the set, Barton missed out on the opportunity to tie the match with Northeastern coming out on top 27-25.
Searching for some spark with hopes of keeping the season alive, Plains District Coach of the Year Alan Segal mixed up the Barton lineup. Playing with a loose no fear style of play, the Cougars rode Melo's hot hand as the freshman sparked a 4-0 stretch with a kill and solo block helping Barton out to a 12-7 lead. Melo continued to be a force in the middle throughout the set, rejecting four Northeastern attacks. Testoni's kill and second service ace of the set helped key a 7-1 stretch, extending the margin to eight a pair of times in dominating the set 25-19.
Northeastern came flexing back in the fourth set, rattling off four straight in building a 15-9 lead. The hopes of Barton extending the match kept dwindling as the Plainswomen continued to find the empty holes in the Cougars defense. Meanwhile the Barton offense went stagnant, committing eight errors on its forty swings as Northeastern would advance in the tournament on the 25-14 victory.