Rising two spots to No. 3 in the latest NJCAA poll, the Barton Community College volleyball team handled a road challenge Wednesday night with a 3–1 victory at Dodge City Community College (25-23, 25-16, 24-26, 25-11).
Barton improves to 3-0 in league and 14-2 on the season while Dodge City, predicted to finish second with the Cougars in the conference race, slips to 2-1 and 8-7 on the year.
Next up is a weekend trip to Sterling, Colorado, for the Sheila Worley Tournament beginning Friday versus Laramie County Community College at 10:30 a.m. followed by a 3:30 p.m. tangle with No. 9 Odessa College. Saturday’s action begins at 3:30 p.m. with their second match in a week versus New Mexico Junior College before closing out the trip at 8:30 p.m. against the host and 5th ranked Northeastern Junior College.
Stasa Stamenkovic powered the Cougar attack with a career high 20 kills and .457 hitting while adding 15 digs and two aces for her 6th double-double effort.
Caroliny Cristiny followed reaching double-digit kills for the 8th time of the freshman’s season by finishing with 13 kills along with two block assists.
Reigning KJCCC Player of the Week Indigo Pruitt stayed hot contributing 8 kills on .375 efficiency and four total blocks while Defensive Player of the Week Aubrey Olander chipped in 4 block assists and 6 kills as Brylynn Wicker matched the wall denials and added 4 kills.
Barton’s 6-2 system produced 52 assists, Ori Briger handing out 24 with Janka Tolnai dishing out 18 to go along with two service aces.
Defensively, Mina Kaneko collected a match high 17 digs with Briger and Tolnai contributing 9 and 7 respectively.
As a team, Barton finished with 54 kills on .213 hitting, highlighted by the decisive fourth-set .452 clip, while holding Dodge City to just .109.
Set 1
In a tightly contested opener, neither team led by more than two points until late. Trailing 21-20, Barton answered out of their own timeout with four straight points, then held off the Conquistadors to overcome a shaky .178 hitting percentage and take the set 25-23.
Set 2
A 6-2 stretch gave Barton breathing room by the set’s midpoint as the Cougars closed strong by taking nine of the last 12 points to secure a 25-16 win and a two-set lead.
Set 3
Dodge City refused to go quietly, building an early four-point lead before Barton rallied to tie it at nine. The Cougars briefly grabbed a 21-20 edge late, but a match-high 10 errors and just a .054 hitting percentage proved costly as the Conquistadors pulled out a 26-24 win to extend the match.
Set 4
The setback ignited the Cougars for their most dominant performance of the evening, ripping 18 kills on .452 hitting to jump out to an early lead. A six-point surge put Dodge City in chase mode as Barton closed the night with five straight points to finish off the match, 25-11.
