It took a few points for the 12th ranked Barton Community College volleyball team to get rolling Wednesday night in Concordia but once the sweat started to roll so did the Cougars in earning a conference opening sweep at Cloud County Community College 25-20, 25-13, and 25-15.
The 4-0 Cougars have a quick turnaround before leaving on an extended roadtrip with stops in Nebraska and Arizona. Barton will compete in the Northeast Tournament in Norfolk on Friday and Saturday before making their way to Arizona for matches throughout the week. The Cougars will eventually have their home opener on Wednesday, September 8, against Colby Community College.
A pair of attack errors with a service error put Barton in its biggest deficit of the night, trailing 5-1 before reigning conference player of the week Mylena Testoni led the surge. Hammering down a kill then teaming with Victoria Da Silva for a block, Testoni would later follow Maria Santos' court punisher to tie it up at six. A service error and receive error gave Cloud County a pair of points for a 10-8 lead but it would be the last time the home T-Birds would be out front the rest of the night. Barton took control on a 6-0 run, highlight by a trio of Joelle LaForce kills and a pair of Da Silva plays at the net surging Barton ahead 12-8. The T-birds fought back to draw within one on two occasions, but Da Silva again took control of the net helping to hold off the charge as Barton would take the set 25-20.
The lathered up Cougars kept the momentum into the second frame, racing out to an 8-1 lead with Tasiah Nunnery getting a kill and two service aces. The margin continued to grow to 17-7 and 21-8 behind another Nunnery ace before the second wave of Cougars took over as Jaden Boden and Addison Crites kills pushed Barton on to the 25-13 win.
Cloud County picked up the first point of the final set with Barton taking the next five to set the tone. The T-birds were only able to close the gap to 5-3 and again at 9-6 before Barton methodically strung multiple points together widening the gap the rest of the set with Jadyn Brown hammering the final decisive tenth point margin of victory.