Barton volleyball season ends in Region VI semifinals with 22-12 mark
The Barton Community College volleyball team got off to a great start in the Region VI Championships over the weekend in Dodge City but couldn’t close the deal, going 2-2 and being eliminated the semifinals. Barton won the opening two matches at the Civic Center – including an upset of the top seeded Seward County Saints – before losing the final two contests to finish 3rd. Hutchinson eventually won the event and qualified for the NJCAA National Tournament.
Highlights
The Cougars rolled by Colby to start things Friday afternoon then upset the No. 1 seed in the opening round of the double elimination portion of the event. Barton cruised to a 25-19 25-19 27-25 win over the Trojans in the 1st round. Taylor Brown had 9 kills to pace a balanced Barton attack that saw Raney Okeson add 8 kills and Xuemei Zhang 7. Mengya Wang had 27 assists to lead Barton while Laura Macek ended with 9 blocks – 2 solo and 7 assisted.
What turned out to be the biggest win of the year for Barton started play Saturday morning as the Cougars knocked off the Saints. The teams split the opening sets in relative ease with Barton winning 25-14 to start the match and Seward following with a 25-16 win. But the Cougars closed the deal in the next two sets 25-20 and 25-19. Brown had 13 kills to just 2 errors in 24 attempts to pace the Cougar hitting attack. Zhang and Okeson each added 8 kills. Wang finished with 31 assists and 15 digs. Ana Paula Pego led Barton in digs with 26 while Bailey Gehring had 7 blocks – 2 solo and 5 assisted.
Barton couldn’t keep the momentum going in the final match of the day Saturday that it had in the opening match of the day. The Cougars had little success in a 25-23 25-13 25-14 loss to Hutchinson. Barton did battle the opening set of the match but Hutch cruised from there. Barton ended the match with more hitting errors (20) than kills (13).
The Cougars nearly made it a rematch with Hutch but couldn’t get past Pratt in the loser’s bracket finals. The team split the opening sets with Pratt winning 25-22 and Barton winning 25-19. But this time it was the Beavers who won the next two sets 25-20 and 25-22 to advance to the finals. Zhang had 14 kills and 2 errors in 23 attempts to pace the Cougars hitting attack. Macek added 7 kills. Wang ended with 30 assists and Pego led 4 Cougars in double digit digs with 19. Zhang also led Barton with 6 blocks – 2 solo and 4 assisted.
The Cougars season ends at 22-12 under 1st year head coach Jaime Cabral. That is an improvement of 8 wins over last year when Barton finished 14-27.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Season complete with 22-12 record.
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Check out Barton Volleyball Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports |
