Life in the Jayhawk can be very unkind from night to night as the 20th ranked Barton Community College volleyball team found out falling in straight sets to Dodge City Community College (25-15, 25-19, and 25-23) Wednesday evening inside the Dodge Dome.
The loss slides the Cougars to 1-1 in conference and 12-3 on the season while the Conquistadors improve to 1-1 in league play and 8-5 overall. Barton will have the weekend off before beginning a two-match homestand Monday night at 6:30 p.m. hosting Seward County Community College followed by Cloud County Community College on Wednesday.
Phoebe Reyes led the Barton attack with 16 kills on 27 attempts for a .481 attack while the Cougars hit just .129 for the night. Reigning Conference Player of the Week Kassidy Nixon and Anna Wierzbicki provided solid net defense teaming up for three assisted blocks while the back line was led by Clara Lindstrom's 12 digs.
Barton trailed 6-2 out of the gates in the opening set before two straight points cut the deficit to two but it was as close as the opening set would be the rest of the way. The Conquistadors methodically pulled away behind a three-point stretch and ultimate six-straight spurt, outscoring the Cougars 10-1 for a 22-11 lead. Seesawing back and forth over the next four points Barton would string back-to-back points on a Mya Thompson kill and Conquistador error before Dodge City claimed the final point in wrapping up the set.
The Cougars again fell into an early uphill deficit to begin the second set with Dodge City taking the opening five points. Clawing back with three-straight behind a pair of Thompson kills mixed between a Conq attacking error Barton kept things within reach eventually drawing within one, 9-8 succeeding a P. Reyes attack and Dodge City error. The Conqs responded with three straight assisted by a pair of Cougar miscues eventually growing the lead to six forcing Barton to burn their first timeout trailing 17-11. Out of the timeout the Cougars caught some momentum with four-straight benefitted behind an Wierzbicki attack, double assisted Thompson and Abigale Hardison block followed by a Lindstrom service ace capping an eventual 4-0 response drawing within 17-15. A sequential 4-0 response by Dodge City pushed the margin to six with both teams trading the final eight points handing the Conquistadors a 2-0 match lead.
Unlike the previous two sets, the third was tight early and stayed that way until a late Conquistador surge. Barton claimed the opening point gifted on a Conquistador attacking error but would trail 4-2 just five points later before rattling off a pair of four-point stretches forcing Dodge City to burn their first timeout at 10-5. Holding a six-point lead at the midway point, miscues would leave the door open with Dodge City capitalizing stringing four straight together and eventual 6-1 run knotting things up at 18-18. Three straight P. Reyes attacks and ultimately two more kills from the freshman provided Barton's final lead and points at 23-21 as a late rotation shift and back-to-back service errors came at a costly time with the Conquistadors claiming the final four-straight to clinch the match.