Cougars set season highs in Barton Classic finale to split final day action #GoBarton

Results, photos, and video archive of the 2019 Barton Classic can be found at: http://bartonsports.com/sports/wvball/2019-20/2019BartonVolleyballClassic

The Barton Community College volleyball squad concluded its two-day Barton Classic with a conference victory as the Cougars split Saturday's action dropping a 3-1 score to Division II No. 12 Cloud County Community College (16-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23) before ending the weekend with a sweep over Pratt Community College (25-18, 25-9, 25-14).

The 2-2 weekend moves Barton to 15-10 while the conference victory improves the third place Cougars to 5-2. A day's rest is ahead on the schedule before traveling to Dodge City Community College on Monday for a 6:30 p.m. conference match first serve.

Taking the court in the day's second match of taking on Cloud County, five straight sparked by Victoria O'Keefe and capped with O'Keefe's assisted block with Rayanne de Oliveira, built an early Cougar three point lead. The margin grew to eight mid-way through the set with the Cougars riding out to the seven point win.

Cloud County broke open the second set rattling off five straight, three before and two more following a Barton timeout, to grab a four point edge. The T-birds worked to a five point set clincher but a three point Barton rally fell short in the end with Cloud County victorious by three to even the match.

A pair of three point early spurts for a stretch of outscoring Barton eight-of-ten points provided a Cloud County three point lead before the Cougars climbed back to grab a 16-15 lead. Winning five of the next six points the T-birds surged ahead to build a four point advantage at 22-18 in sparring the rest of the points to take the match lead.

Another tight back-n-forth set begin to open up at the mid-way point with the T-birds taking five of six before Migle Mazurkeviciute led a trio of Cougar points to knot it up at eighteen. A pivotal quad of T-bird points created separation but again Barton came roaring back in the late stages behind an O'Keefe's kill followed by a teamed block by Oliveira and Eduarda Souza cut the deficit to one. A costly service error gave Cloud County match point with Barton coming back to grab the next point before the 35th Cougar error of the match provided the final doom in the two-point loss and second defeat to the T-birds this season.

The weekend's conclusion was the conference matchup with the Pratt Beavers as Barton looked to bounce back from its .054 attack percentage and clean up from its second worst match of committing errors.

The Cougars did just that in setting season best performances, attacking at a .417 percentage and committing just seven errors on seventy-two swings.

Oliveira and Mazurkeviciute led with fourteen kills each, hitting at .684 and .500 respectively, to help Barton make short work of the Beavers.
Two of O'Keefe's team high three service aces helped build an early 5-2 lead as Barton wouldn't look back in rolling to the seven point set win.

Mackenzie Pease provided the early spark of the second frame with a pair of attacks as Barton would later go on a 9-2 spurt in opening an eleven point gap. Mazurkeviciute provided the late daggers accounting for four of the final six points in the sixteen point victory and two set match lead.

A double wall of denial from Agnieska Paskevic and Pease capped an early four point stretch to all but put Pratt down under at 11-4. O'Keefe's attack began another four point spurt later expanding the lead to ten with the Cougars again putting the hammer down late in finishing off the match taking seven of the last nine to win its third straight conference match.

Mazurkeviciute led Barton on the day with 25 kills as Oliveira knocked down 23 and O'Keefe registering fourteen. Paskevic steered the offense with 76 total assists to go along with 22 digs while Karina de Oliveira was all over the court collecting 42 digs.

Pease's wall of denial produced four solo blocks and four assisted in the two matches while R. Oliveira denied seven against Cloud County.

Complete Results
Friday:
Pratt CC def Labette CC (25-13, 25-16, 25-14)
DI #8 Iowa Western CC def DII #12 Cloud County CC (25-16, 25-19, 25-19)
Barton CC def Labette CC (25-15, 25-11, 25-10)
DII #12 Cloud County CC def Pratt CC (25-21, 25-18, 18-25, 25-17)
DI #8 Iowa Western CC def Barton CC (25-21, 25-18, 25-19)

Saturday:
DI #8 Iowa Western CC def Labette (25-5, 25-14, 25-17)
DII #12 Cloud County CC def Barton (16-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23)
DI #8 Iowa Western CC def Pratt (25-19, 25-15, 25-15)
DII #12 Cloud County CC def Labette CC (25-14, 25-14, 25-11)
Barton CC def Pratt CC *Conference (25-18, 25-9, 25-14)