The Barton Community College volleyball team grinded to a four set victory over Hutchinson Community College 25-19, 27-25, 10-25, and 25-19 Friday evening inside the Barton Gymnasium.
The victory keeps the Cougars' a game out of first place in the KJCCC standings at 5-1 and 14-8 overall on the season while the Blue Dragons slide to 4-4 in conference play and 12-8 overall. Barton will have the weekend off before welcoming in the T-Birds of Cloud County Community College on Wednesday night for a 6:30 p.m. first serve.
Four different Cougars put up double-double performances Friday night. Notching her ninth double-double of the season Tasiah Nunnery led the Cougar attack with 17 kills for a .412 hitting mark while producing 11 digs on the defensive end. Sophomore Mylena Testoni got back on track snapping a four-match double-double drought finishing with 13 digs and 12 kills for an attack percentage of .211. Splitting the duties in the 6-2 formation Isabella Guedes posted her eighth double-double of the season with a team high 26 assists and 13 dig performance while freshman Mya Maxwell secured her first collegiate double-double dishing out 24 assists going along with a new career high 13 digs.
RECAP
Seesawing the opening five points, Barton won the battle to the first consecutive points following kills by Testoni and Joelle LaForce giving Barton the 4-3 edge. Ensuing a Blue Dragon point tying things up at 4-4, the Cougars assembled four straight prompting Hutchinson's first timeout while ultimately stretching the run to six straight out of the break holding a 10-4 lead. A pair of Buse Kocakaya kills during a 4-0 stretch upped the Barton lead to 16-8. Seeming to hold all momentum the Cougar advantage evaporated as five straight by the Blue Dragons trimmed the advantage to a pair twice with the last coming at 19-17 as back-to-back LaFroce kills reeled off four straight and six of the final eight.
A trio of Maria Santos kills out of the gates in the second handed Barton a brief 5-4 advantage until six straight by Hutchinson prompted a Cougar timeout trailing 10-5. Barton grasped some momentum back with a 6-2 spurt as a pair of Nunnery kills and Hanna Miller service ace helped claw the Blue Dragon lead to 12-11. Battling to within one on six seperate occasions throughout the later stages, the Cougars remained in position fighting off a pair of set points as a pair of Santos kills followed by a Testoni kill handed Barton its' first lead since the 5-4 mark. Following a Hutchinson kill by Kristin Head knotting it up at 25-25 a pair of Blue Dragon attacking errors handed Barton the final two points and a 2-0 match lead.
In the third, Barton's lone consecutive rally came off a Nunnery kill and service ace handing the Cougars' its' lone lead in the set at 2-1 as Hutchinson scored on 14 of the set's next 17 points and never looked back.
Able to reset from the third, the Cougars grasped the momentum from the start as a pair of Nunnery service aces and kill sparked a 6-0 start. The Blue Dragons remained within reach with five of the next seven backing a double assisted block by Zoey Schmidt and Morgan Harvey pulling Barton's lead down to 7-5. Searching for a response the Cougars found that spark seconds later in the middle as Victoria Da Silva accounted for five of the Cougars' 10 points over a 10-4 stretch ballooning the lead to 17-9. Hutchinson would come knocking on the door one final time with an 8-2 stretch pulling to within 23-19, till kills by LaForce and Nunnery closed out the match.