EL DORADO, Kan. – Fourth seed Butler volleyball hosted fifth seed Garden City in the quarterfinal round of the Region VI tournament on Wednesday at the Power Plant, sweeping the Broncbusters 3-0 (29-27, 25-22, 25-14) to move on to the semifinal round.
Butler (19-12) is on to the semifinal round of the Region VI tournament, traveling to Great Bend on Saturday for a 6:30 p.m. match vs. the top seeded Barton Cougars at the Barton Gym. Garden City's season comes to an end with the loss. Butler was 3-0 vs. the Broncbusters this season.
"It seems like our team plays better on the road so we tried to make today more like a road match with our pre-match routine," said head coach Lisa Lechtenberg. "It's good to get the first round out of the way. We always talk about keeping our foot on the gas pedal and not letting up and that is something we have to continue to do. We're going to have to be aggressive throughout the entire match at Barton and hopefully can come away with a win."
The first set was close throughout. The set was tied at 7-7 and later 12-12. Butler started to pull away, taking an 18-14 lead following a Broncbuster error. Another Garden error made it 22-16 Butler and Garden City was forced to call a timeout. Garden managed to make it a 24-22 game and ultimately scored two straight to tie it at 24. A block error off a swing from Maria Eduarda Motta gave Butler the 29-27 set one win.
Garden City led early on in the second set, eventually taking an 11-8 lead midway through. It was a battle down the stretch with the set seeing a 19-19 tie. Butler pulled away fir the 25-22 win to take a 2-0 lead but hit just .087 in the set, a match-low.
The third set was all Grizzlies as they swung at a .393 clip, winning 25-14.
Sophomore Sydney Lentz was impressive, finishing with a match-high 15 kills on .379 hitting to go with a match-high five blocks. Freshman Anja Milosevic had 25 assists, 15 digs and six kills. Freshman Laynee Brown led with a match-high 18 digs and sophomore Maria Eduarda Motta had seven kills, four blocks and 13 digs.
