Volleyball takes down Friends JV, falls in 3 to Cowley

Volleyball takes down Friends JV, falls in 3 to Cowley

EL DORADO, Kan. – Butler volleyball hosted a doubleheader at the Power Plant on Friday afternoon, going 1-1 with a win over Friends JV and loss to Cowley College.

The Grizzlies moved to 7-5 on the season following Friday's matches and will now get back into KJCCC play this coming week with matches at Colby on Monday and at Hutchinson on Wednesday before hosting Garden City on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Butler 3, Friends JV 0 (25-12, 25-12, 25-5)

Butler wasted no time dispatching the Falcons JV squad in the opener on Friday, taking them down in straight sets. The Grizzlies held Friends to just five points in the final set, putting an exclamation point on the impressive performance.

Freshman Raven Boone (Gardner) led Butler with 10 kills on .5333 hitting. Freshman Sarah Sullivan (Henderson, NV) and sophomore Maria Eduarda Motta (Foz do Iguaco, Brazil) each tallied nine kills with Sullivan connecting on a match-high .571 percent of her kills.

Freshman Anja Milosevic (Belgrade, Serbia) led with 31 assists while freshman Laynee Brown (Topeka) led with seven digs. Butler hit .636 in the final set.

Cowley 3, Butler 0 (17-25, 21-25, 24-26)

The Grizzlies started off slow in set one and were never able to get things going in a straight set sweep by Cowley. Cowley is the fifth ranked team in the nation in the NJCAA D2 rankings.

Set one was handled from start to finish by the Tigers but the Grizzlies made things interesting in sets two and three, nearly pulling off the win in set three before Cowley scored two straight points with the score being tied at 24 to take the 26-24 win.

Butler was held to under .200 hitting in each of the three sets, hitting a match-low in the first set (.051) and a team-high in the third set (.152).

Sullivan paced the Grizzlies with eight kills on .269 hitting with sophomore Greta Santini (Reggio Emilia, Italy) following right behind with six kills. Milosevic nearly missed out on a double-double finishing with 14 assists and nine digs. Brown had a team-high 24.