Story by Wyatt Ebersole:

After 9-straight away games, the 19th ranked Butler Volleyball squad returns home to the Power Plant for two games that the Grizzlies must win to stay in the hunt for a chance to repeat as Jayhawk Conference champions. The Grizzlies, currently sitting at 10-2 in conference play, which is tied for second in the conference with Hutchinson and 1.5 games behind 1st place Seward, face the Barton Cougars on Wednesday and the Dodge City Conquistadors on Saturday in two certainly must win games for the Grizzlies.  

The Grizzlies are coming off a 2-1 week where they picked a very important 3-0 victory over #19 Hutchinson on Wednesday, but then suffered a hurtful 3-1 loss at #15 Seward County on Friday, and then finished off the week with a needed sweep of Garden City.  

This week the Grizzlies are playing at home for just the fifth and sixth time this season and just the second and third times in the last month. The Grizzlies have won their last 20 games in the Power Plant dating back to the Spring 2021 season.  

RECORD WATCH:

#4 Rainey Aven has already left her mark on the Butler Volleyball record books breaking the set assists in a career record on October 7th against Trinity Valley and is currently sitting at 1,636 assists in her Grizzly career. Aven also broke the record for set assists in a match with 52 against Tyler Junior College on October 8th. The 5'9 sophomore from Hereford, Texas is now pursuing the record for set assists in a season which is currently held by Shannon Mandarin at 1,125. Rainey's total so far this season is 993. 

#15 Ivy Fink is currently chasing the record for the kills in a career which is currently set at 740 by former All-American Crystal Blue. Ivy is getting close to that number currently sitting at 616 kills in her career. 

#20 Kennedy Kelly currently leads the NJCAA in hitting percentage by a wide margin at .394. Kennedy is well on pace to break the Grizzly record for hitting percentage in a season which is a record currently held by Amanda Newlin's 2010 season where she hit .378. 

LOOKING AHEAD TO BARTON :

The 19-11 and 19th ranked Grizzlies face the 16-10 Barton Cougars on Wednesday night in the Power Plant at 6:00PM. The Grizzlies played the Cougars in Great Bend on September 17th and the Grizzlies swept Barton 3-0. The match score is a bit deceiving as two of the three sets were very close with the Grizzlies winning 25-23, 25-17, and 25-22. The Grizzlies had one of their better offensive performances at Barton this season hitting .336 as a team and having a trio Grizzlies with double-digit kills, led by Kennedy Kelly with 12, Ivy Fink with 11, and Carrie Roe with 10.  

Barton started the season on fire with a monster 11-0 start to the year and winning all those games in four sets or less. The Cougars have slowed down a great deal as they are 6-10 since that hot start and are a woeful 3-8 in KJCCC play which is second to last in the conference. Barton will be looking to get back on track and defeat the Grizzlies for the first time in two seasons. If their last matchup is any indication, expect another close, competitive match between these two conference foes. 

A LOOK AT DODGE CITY :

The 19-11 and 19th ranked Butler Grizzlies will face the 18-7 Dodge City Conquistadors on Saturday afternoon in the Power Plant at 2:00PM. Dodge City is the only team in the past two seasons to defeat the Grizzlies while not having an appearance in the NJCAA poll during the season. The Conqs defeated the Grizzlies 3-2 at Dodge City on September 21st of this season. The Grizzlies played well enough offensively hitting .289 with 56 kills, but it was defense and serving that really hurt the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies had a season high 13 service errors and a below average 69 digs.  

Dodge is 7-5 in conference play, currently 4th in the KJCCC, 3-games behind Butler and Hutchinson. A loss to Butler would eliminate the Conquistadors from the conference title race, but the Conquistadors are more so playing for home court advantage in the first round of the Region VI playoffs as they currently hold a slim 1-game advantage over Garden City in the standings. The Grizzlies will be looking for a revenge victory, while Dodge City will look to pull-off the upset of Butler on Sophomore Day and complete the season sweep of the Grizzlies, something they haven't done since these two teams both became NJCAA Division 1 schools in 2013. It will likely be another very close, competitive match, but expect the Grizzly sophomores to come up big on their special day. 

AFTER THE WEEK 

If the Grizzlies win both matches this week, the games the next week will become even more important. The Grizzlies will have their rematch with First place Seward on Wednesday, October 26th in the Power Plant and will face second place Hutchinson the following Friday. If the Grizzlies win out the rest of the season and Seward loses an additional game, they will repeat as conference champions.