GREAT BEND, Kan. – Fourth seed Butler volleyball took down top seeded Barton at their home gym on Saturday evening 3-1 (25-22, 18-25, 25-20, 25-21), moving on to the Region VI championship match on Sunday.

The Grizzlies (20-12) will play three seed Colby on Sunday afternoon a 2 p.m. in Barton Gym in Great Bend. The Grizzlies are 0-2 this season vs. the Trojans, having been swept in both matches.

Butler defeated the conference champion Cougars (25-6) for a second straight time, taking two of three from Barton this season with both wins coming in Great Bend.

The Grizzlies jumped out to a 1-0 set lead, a set that was tightly contested. It was back-and-forth with a 20-20 tie pitting a tie in crunch time. Butler jumped ahead 22-20 and later 24-22 before freshman outside hitter Sarah Sullivan slammed home the set point.

Barton immediately responded in set two. They took a 14-11 lead in the set, forcing a Butler timeout. The Cougars maintained a lead, going ahead 18-16 and later 22-17. The Cougars ultimately won the set 25-18.

Butler proceeded to win the final two sets, the third 25-20 and the fourth, 25-21. The win pits them in their third consecutive Region VI championship match after defeating Seward in 2021 to advance to their first ever NJCAA national tournament and losing to Seward in Liberal in 2022.

Four Grizzlies posted a team-high 10 kills in the match. Sophomore Sydney Lentz and Sullivan both hit .333 with 10 kills. Freshman Raven Boone and sophomore Maria Eduarda Motta also had 10 kills to go with 11 digs. Freshman setter Anja Milosevic had 37 assists and 17 digs. Freshman Laynee Brown had a team-high 18 digs. Butler hit .225 as a team to Barton's .161.