Cougars downed in four sets at Dodge City #GoBarton

The Barton Community College volleyball team fell in four sets Wednesday night at Dodge City Community College 25-20, 23-25, 25-19, and 25-21.

Barton drops 3-6 in conference action and 14-6 overall while Dodge City improves to 5-4 in league and 16-6 overall.

Following the brief two match road stretch, the Cougars return home for the next two beginning with Saturday's 6:30 p.m. hosting of 15th ranked Seward County Community College followed by Wednesday welcoming in Cloud County Community College.

Tasiah Nunnery had her three match double-double streak snapped, leading the Cougars with nine kills and collecting 12 digs. Molly Norris stayed hot in the middle with 7 kills on a team leading .318 attack as the Cougars hit just .162 on the night. Jada Davis provided solid net defense with three unassisted of her six blocks while the back line was led by Hanna Miller's 17 digs.

The Cougars served up nine aces on the night as Nunnery had three as did Jadyn Brown who also contributed a team second best 13 digs. Setter Iris Oosterbaan put up 26 assists with one kill, one ace, and three digs.

Barton got off to a good start in the opener going up 11-8 but Dodge City took seven of the next eight to flip the script to a three point home lead. Norris and Nunnery kills followed by Davis teaming with Nunnery on a blockade forced a tie at fifteen for the set's final gridlock. The Conquistadors took the next three points and didn't allow Barton back to any closer than two the rest of the way before closing out the set with a 7-2 stretch.

Each team shared three point leads in an otherwise tightly played second set with the eleventh tie coming at 23. Consecutive Davis-Nunnery blocks put the Cougars up 23-21 but Dodge City took the next two including a service ace tying it up for the last time. Following a Barton timeout, the Conquistadors returned the favor on a service error with Nunnery tying the match with an ace as the last three points were determined at the service line.

A five point early stretch put Barton on its heels in the third but hung around before rattling off four straight behind a Norris kill and trio of Brown aces to tie it at 13. The Conquistadors responded with the next two tallies to pull ahead and kept Barton from tying it the rest of the way before a 6-1 close out gained a 2-1 match advantage.

Again in the fourth Barton found itself in a hole, four straight Dodge City points built an 11-6 lead before growing it to six at 13-7 and seven at 17-10 in threatening to blow out the set. A Nunnery kill and Davis solo block led a four point spurt to cut it to three but Dodge City fired back with a trio in pushing the lead back to six at 20-14. Davis and Oosterbaan kills helped cut it back to three and following a Conquistador point, Brown's kill and Nunnery's ace led another trio of points putting the Cougars to within one. Dodge City gained the next point with Oosterbaan's kill from the setter position again sliced the deficit to one but the Conquistadors held off the charge scoring the final three points to snap a twelve match losing streak to the Cougars.