6th ranked Barton Volleyball sweeps Butler in conference opener #GoBarton

Playing at home for the first time of the 2024 campaign, the 6th ranked Barton Community College volleyball team made it a short Wednesday night at the Barton Gym behind a straight set sweep of Butler Community College 25-14, 25-20, and 25-17.

The ninth sweep of the season improves Barton to 10-0 overall from its conference opener with Butler, who is receiving votes in the latest NJCAA poll, slips to 1-1 in KJCCC play and 5-5 on the year.

Barton's victory also snapped a four-match home losing streak to the Grizzlies, including avenging last year's loss to Butler in the District semifinals.

Getting the weekend break from competition, the Cougars' resume their three-match homestand on Monday returning to conference play against Pratt Community College before Wednesday's hosting of the junior varsity squad from McPherson College. First serve slated for 6:30 p.m. for both contests.

Three Cougars primarily led the offensive attack, led by Mya Thompson's 8 kills on a .429 efficiency. Phoebe Reyes also recorded 8 kills with Anna Wierzbicki finishing with 7 kills on a .385 attack percentage.

Setters Elena Stankovic and Maurin Reyes put up 14 and 13 assists respectively despite the squad hitting at an early season second worst .198 attack.

Kassidy Nixon's 10 digs and Mina Kaneko's 9 digs led the backline with Aubrey Olander's 3 blocks led the net play while additionally adding 4 kills on a .500 attack.

Following the Grizzlies winning the first point of the night, Barton never trailed again in the set as Wierzbicki and Thompson accounted for half of the opening set kills in the squad's .476 efficiency. The Cougars methodically widened the margin until closing out the frame on a 5-0 run in winning by eleven.

Butler again grabbed the early led in the second set with the Cougars rattling off four straight for the lead. The Grizzlies fired back with a pair of four straight stretches to lead by two on multiple occasions with the last coming at 19-17. From there it was all Cougars, three straight prompting a Butler timeout with four more coming after the break highlighted by Olander's solo block as the Cougars took control of the match leading by two on the five-point victory.

An 8-1 start by the Cougars dug Butler a deep early hole in the third and a gap that would shrink to two just once at 12-10. Barton kept the arm's length margin throughout the set with the final dagger of momentum highlighted by a four point stretch for a 21-14 lead in what would be the final winning margin of seven.