Cougars come up short in fifth set loss to Cloud County; Nunnery makes moves up career chart #GoBarton

The Barton Community College volleyball team fell short Wednesday evening at the Barton Gym in falling 3-2 hosting Cloud County Community College 21-25, 25-22, 25-14, 12-25, and 17-15.

Barton slides to 3-8 in conference and 14-8 overall while Cloud County improves to 4-8 in league and 7-14 on the season.

The Cougars have quick turnaround in packing the bags for Thursday's departure to Park Hill, Missouri, participating in the Cardinal Classic. On Friday, Barton will take on 3rd ranked Indian Hills Community College at 1:00 p.m. followed by a 7:00 p.m. match versus St. Louis Community College. A noon match versus host and 20th ranked Mineral Area College will begin Saturday's action as a 2:00 p.m. first serve awaits against Vincennes University.

Tasiah Nunnery led the Cougars on a career program watch list night for the sophomore from Hays, Kansas. Recording her 10th double-double of the year in punishing the court with 14 kills and 13 digs, Nunnery closed the gap to thirteen kills for 13th all-time while also moving into 4th place all-time protecting the court in surpassing two-time NJCAA All-American Mylena Testoni in career digs. Not done on the watch list, Nunnery added four service aces to leap over two previous Cougars into the 14th all-time position.

Last time on the court Barton was without the services of starters Jadyn Brown, Hanna Miller, and Buse Kocakaya but tonight the squad welcomed trio back. Brown contributed 6 kills on a .214 attack while collecting 11 digs and a pair of aces. Miller, who continues her escalation of the career dig top mark, patrolled the back line for a team high 24 digs bringing her career total to 1623 at 5.36 digs per set. Kocakaya played a limited two sets in recording a trio of kills on a .375 attack and assisting on two blocks. The trio will again miss time this weekend, Brown and Miller attending their grandfather's funeral while Kocakaya will continue to nurse an injury in preparation of the season's last stretch of matches.

Similar to the early season three-set sweep in Concordia, errors haunted the Cougars again in the teams' second go-around. Committing 38 total stat errors in the first meeting, Wednesday night wasn't much better despite playing an additional two sets, chalking up 41 total errors including 22 on the attack line for just a .110 percentage.

In addition to Nunnery's lead in kills and Brown's six, Jada Davis and Molly Norris combined for 11 kills and six blocks. Iris Oosterbaan put up 34 assists with 8 digs to just miss her 7th double-double of the year.

A four point stretch including the first of Nunnery's aces put the Cougars up 12-7. The lead shrunk to three by mid-set before a Davis kill and pair of Nunnery court punishes pushed margin out to its largest of six. Following a Cloud County timeout, the T-birds responded with three straight and six of the next eight to draw within two. Norris block halted to run with Barton later taking three of the last four points getting a Brown ace and Norris kill in capturing the first set.

The T-Birds regrouped and came out firing in the second, racing out to an 8-2 lead and later holding on to another six point advantage at 15-9. Beginning with a Cloud County service error, Barton clawed back tacking on four more getting a Nunnery kill, another Brown ace, and Norris' solo block drawing to within one at 15-14. The Cougars stayed resilient eventually tying it at 20 following Nunnery's attack and pair of Brown kills but Cloud County went back up after an attack error. Brown stayed hot late in the set firing off another set of kills to tie it at 22 but a service error gave the T-birds a free point before rattling off the next pair of points tying the match.

Cloud County put the Cougars on their heels in the third by erasing a 9-8 Barton lead with a 10-1 stretch. The T-birds strung five straight, tacking on another two after a Barton timeout, then followed Norris kill with three more points for a commanding 18-10 lead. Seven would be as close as the Cougars would come as Cloud County controlled the set for the eleven point win and match lead.

As much as the third was all Cloud County, the fourth was similar as Barton controlled the set beginning with a 7-2 lead. After the T-Birds took the next two, Nunnery's kill followed by consecutive aces and kills by Davis and Darby Smith pushed the gap to eight. Following one of the Cougars' ten service errors, the Cougars gained the next three highlighted by the blockade of Norris for a ten point lead. Barton gave away three more points from the service line in holding a 17-9 edge before kills by Nunnery and Davis, a blockade by Kocakaya and Davis, and two Norris aces added five more to the total. Three straight answers by Cloud County would be the last of the points as Barton rattled off the final five capped by Nunnery's kill to force a fifth.

The teams traded a pair of points to begin the fifth before a 5-2 T-bird stretch gave the visitors a 7-4 lead. The Cougars fired back with the next four with a Nunnery ace and Smith kill for a 8-7 change-over lead, only to have Cloud regain the lead on two straight. The teams traded point for point until 12-all when a Barton service error and Cloud County attack forced a Cougar timeout trying to starve off match point. A T-Bird attack error and Mya Maxwell ace tied it up, the T-birds provided a blockade to go back up on top but a service error gave Barton new life tying it for the last time at fifteen. The protection of home court would fall by the wayside though as Cloud County earned the final pair of points in completing the season sweep for the second time in the past three seasons.

Record Book Watch
Hanna Miller:
- 1st in career digs with 1,623
- 18th in service aces with 93, 2 shy of Alik Cardoso da Sa's 95 total from 2006-2007 seasons

Tasiah Nunnery:
- 4th in career digs with 1006, surpassed Mylena Testoni's 1014 total from the 2020 and 2021 seasons; 192 shy of Karina de Oliveira's 1217 from the 2018-2019 season
- 14th in career kills with 726, 15 shy of Migle Mazurkeviciute's 741 from the 2018-2019 seasons
- 14th in service aces with 100, surpassed Graci D'Amore's 98 total from 2006-2007 seasons and tied with Ashley Powell from 1998-1999 seasons; 4 shy of Juliana da Barros's 104 from 2010-2011 seasons.