Saturday evening's rally fell short for the 19th ranked Barton Community College volleyball team as Butler Community College knocked off the conference leading Cougars with a finale 15-13 fifth set win.
The Grizzlies pulled away from the opening set's 11th tie to win 27-25 and took the second 25-19 before Barton began to find its stride to even the match on consecutive 25-18 and 25-19 scores.
Barton carried the momentum into just its fourth five-set match of the season, building out a 6-3 early edge before seven straight from the Grizzlies flipped the momentum. The Cougars responded scoring six of the next eight to tie it at 12, lost the next point on the squad's 14th service error, tied it again at 13 on Mya Thompson's 13th kill of the evening, only to have Butler close out the final two points for the 15-13 victory.
The loss snapped Barton's twelve match win streak, dropping the Cougars to 12-2 in conference and 23-4 overall. Avenging Barton's sweep in El Dorado earlier in the season, Butler's third straight victory on Barton's home floor improves the fourth place Grizzlies to 8-5 in league and 16-11 overall.
Having already clinched a share of the conference title, Barton has a two match lead with two remaining but faces a tough road ahead in trying to grab the outright crown. Wednesday the Cougars travel to third place Colby Community College (9-5, 17-9) before hosting second place Hutchinson Community College (9-4, 22-13) in Saturday's regular season wrap-up. A 6:30 p.m. first serve is slated for each contest.
The Cougar offense clipped at a .237 efficiency, the sixth match in the last seven to be at or above that mark, but committed a season high 14 service errors and 5 return errors for the most in its last six matches.
Phoebe Reyes led with 14 kills on a .379 attack in her 29 swings, Thompson adding her 13 kills on a .257 efficiency, and Kassidy Nixon adding 11 kills with 14 digs in recording her team leading 7th double-double of the season.
Elena Stankovic recorded her 11th match of over 20 assists, putting up 26 on the night with Maurin Reyes adding 18 with 8 digs.
Also flirting with a double-double, Naya Danenberg had 7 kills with 9 digs as Clara Lindstrom led the back line with 23 digs.
Countering the miscues at the service line, the Cougars did record 9 aces on the night and posted a season high 14 walls of denials.
Two aces each coming from Danenberg and M. Reyes while three came on a collegiate high effort from Anna Wierzbicki who also contributed 8 kills from the offensive front line.
Wierzbicki also led the defensive wall effort with five blocks, Danenberg putting up two solo in matching her collegiate high 4 total blocks.
Series Notes:
- Teams split the season series after Barton won 3-0 in El Dorado
- Butler has won the last 3 in Great Bend
- Barton leads the series in Great Bend 24-6
- Barton leads the overall series 67-10