Much like the previous season's meeting, the Barton Community College volleyball team had no answer for the conference front-runners as 5th ranked Butler Community College rolled to a Saturday evening sweep in El Dorado 25-18, 25-19, and 25-16.
The loss ends Barton's four match win streak, dropping into third place at 9-3 and 19-10 overall while Butler stays unbeaten atop the standings at 11-0 and extends their winning streak to 23 improving to 27-2 overall.
Barton will next head to Garden City Community College on Monday before hosting their final regular season match in Wednesday's "Sophomore Night" against Pratt Community College. A 6:30 p.m. first serve slated for each contest.
RECAP
The Cougars struggled with service receive all evening as three Butler service aces helped the Grizzlies open up a 9-3 lead. Kills by Tasiah Nunnery, Joelle LaForce, and Maria Santos cut the deficit to three but a Barton service error turned the ball back over. Barton would draw to within three six more times in the set but couldn't get over the hump, the last coming at 20-17 following a Victoria Da Silva and Nunnery block. Butler took the next three, briefly interrupted by Santos' fourth kill of the set, then closed out the final two points for the 25-18 win.
A near carbon copy start to the second frame, Butler jumped out early and again rolled out to a six point 9-3 advantage. Barton took four of the next five points behind a Mylena Testoni service ace and a pair of LaForce attacks to slice the deficit in half. The three points would be as close as the second set would be the rest of the way as Butler would string pairs of points while the Cougars could only muster one tally at a time to increase the gap to 19-12. Jadyn Brown came off the bench to provide a pair of kills in the final Barton four points of the set but it was too little too late in the Grizzlies' six point victory.
Jada Davis' kill with Brown's attack gave Barton their lone lead of the night at 3-2 but three of the Grizzlies' 12 service aces on the night helped spur five straight Butler points in retaking the lead 7-3. A Butler net violation followed by another Brown kill cut the deficit in half but another five straight for the home team dug a seven point 12-5 hole the Cougars were unable to climb back out of. Davis played well off the bench the rest of the set, chalking up two more kills to go along with an assisted block, with Buse Kocakaya and Testoni also adding kills but Butler rolled on to their seventh straight match sweep.