Cougars clinch home court, Barton Volleyball defeats Butler 3-1 #GoBarton

The Barton Community College volleyball team clinched home court for the first round of the upcoming post-season with a 3-1 victory over Butler Community College in four sets 25-18, 25-27, 25-23, and 25-14.

Now 10-5 in Jayhawk play and 20-14 overall, the victory ensures Barton at least fourth place in the conference standings with a shot at tying for third should the Cougars win its last regular season match at 2:00 p.m. Saturday hosting Independence Community College. A win would move Barton into a tie with Hutchinson in the standings but the Cougars would lose the tiebreaker for region seeding purposes. Butler is locked into the fifth spot at 8-8 in conference play and 15-14 overall and will return to the Barton Gym next week as the teams tangle again in first round Region VI action.

Independence will have extra incentive for Saturday's match, sitting in the sixth position at 5-10 and 8-18 overall and need a victory over Barton to hold on to the spot ahead Pratt.

Barton gained first set separation with a four point spurt but Butler recovered from the two point deficit to tie it for the seventh time at seventeen. The Cougars then owned the rest of the points taking eight of the next nine including the last five for the 25-18 victory.

The second set went back and forth through opening nine points with six ties until four straight notched a four point Cougar advantage. The Grizzlies kept battled back to draw within one but a trio of attacks from sophomore Kate Deterding pushed the Barton lead out to 20-15. Again the Grizzlies clawed back, trading two points while holding Barton to solo points in closing the gap to 23-21. Butler then went on a 3-0 run to grab set point, and after having two game clinchers starved off by the Cougars, tallied the final two for a 27-25 to knot the match at one apiece.

Another back and forth start began the third with the Grizzlies getting the early edge breaking away from the fourth tie with a 4-0 run to lead 11-8. Barton inched back into the set trailing by one before freshman Migle Mazurkeviciute's attack sparked a trio of points in surging ahead at 17-15. The Grizzlies took three-of- the-next-four to knot it up at eighteen before the Cougars responded with five straight to seemingly grab command at 23-18. But again the Grizzlies would not go down quietly in holding off Barton's set point, taking four straight to draw within one, before Deterding ended Butler's hope with a kill off the block clinching the 25-23 and 2-1 match lead.

The Cougars crushed the soul in the fourth with eight unanswered in building a 14-5 lead. Mazurkeviciute had a big part in the stretch serving up three service aces with a pair of others leading to Mackenzie Pease's slam dunks on the Grizzlies' over hit of the service receive. Three straight helped the Grizzlies eventually cut the deficit to five but the Cougars rolled from there scoring seven of the last eight including the final five for the victory.