It was a short night Wednesday at the Barton Gym as the Barton Community College volleyball team took care of Cloud County Community College in straight sets 25-22, 25-23, and 25-15.
Improving to 13-3 on the season, Barton moves to 3-1 in drawing within a half game of the early conference lead while Cloud County's fourth straight loss drops the Thunderbirds to 1-4 in KJCCC play and 9-5 on the year.
Playing a pair of home matches this week, Barton will now embark on a two-match road swing beginning Saturday in a 2:00 p.m. first serve at Pratt Community College. The Cougars will then head to El Dorado next Wednesday in taking on Butler Community College before its next home match slated for Saturday, September 23, against Colby Community College.
The Cougars were solid most of the night, putting together a .291 efficiency on 110 attacks with just 13 errors and five service miscues.
Coming off a career high fifteen kills two nights prior, Mya Thompson matched her three-set collegiate best by leading the second wave of attackers with 11 kills on a .364 efficiency. Phoebe Reyes led the first wave with 11 kills as well, totaling 38 in a three-match stretch to average 3.45 kills per set.
Keying the offense to a .291 night, Maurin Reyes and Elena Stankovich put up 19 and 18 assists respectively.
Defensively, libero Clara Lindstrom's flying around the court night totaled 17 digs, Naya Danenberg recorded 11 digs, and Anna Wierzbicki led the net play with three blocks.
1st Set
Akeir Scales' middle attack scored the night's first point but unfortunately shortly thereafter, had to leave the lineup due a minor injury. Already down a middle due to the injury absence of Abigale Hardison, the Cougars shuffled the lineup and moved Kassidy Nixon to the position as the team hit for .361 and just three errors.
The Cougars went on to open up an 8-2 lead, stringing four straight then another trio with Thompson's kill giving Barton its largest lead of the set.
Cloud County began to find their stride in the mid-portion of the opener on three straight to cut the deficit in half at 16-14. Barton countered with three straight on Wierzbicki, Thompson, and Danenberg attacks to push the lead back out to five.
Scoring six of the next seven, Cloud County fought back to tie it at 21 but a pivotal kill by Stankovic coming out of Barton's timeout held off the potential lead change. The Cougars capped the set taking three of the next four including final point coming on a Danenberg-Wierzbicki blockade.
2nd Set
The Thunderbirds were the early second set aggressor, breaking away from a 4-all tie to stretch the lead to four and again at three coming at 12-9.
Lindstrom sparked the Cougars' comeback with two straight points, the first coming on her rare attack from the libero position and then proceeding to the service line in burying an ace. Getting the next point on a Cloud County ball handling error, Barton returned the favor but surged ahead on P. Reyes and Thompson kills.
Tied again at 14, Nixon's attack highlighted a three-pack of points, adding on to follow a pair of Thunderbird tallies on consecutive Nixon and Ella Rumford attacks for a 20-16 lead.
Cloud County strung together a pair of three-point spurts, Thompson, Stankovic, and P. Reyes answering the first spurt with P. Reyes holding off the Thunderbirds' bid to tie it up. Following a service error, P. Reyes again rang the bell as her 5th kill of the set concluded Barton's evening high .385 attack.
3rd Set
Barton put Cloud County's brief 4-3 lead to the wayside behind a 7-0 run. Wierzbicki's kill began the stretch with M. Reyes serving up two aces in tying her collegiate best service line delivery.
The Thunderbirds crept back to within three on four occasions, P. Reyes helping hold off the charge in teaming with Nixon for a block and then punishing the court with a kill pushing the lead back out to six.
After the lead was nibbled down to four, Barton would score eight of the next ten points as Thompson teamed with Wierzbicki on a block before putting down a pair a kills in the stretch helping seal the straight set victory.