WEST PLAINS, Mo. — The Barton Community College volleyball team fell to Temple College on Friday at the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament.
The Lady Cougars dropped the match in three games, 25-23, 25-17 and 25-22.
Barton head coach Patrick Hall said that even though the outcome was not what the team wanted, it played better than it did against Western Wyoming in the opening round.
“It was not quite as bad as (Thursday),” Hall said. “We had a couple of very close games. The problem is that we were tied at 23 and at 22. We just couldn’t close it out.”
Hall said that the worst game was the third and final set.
“That last set, that one really hurt,” Hall said. “The last four points Temple got was from our errors.”
One thing that Barton did better was getting the ball to middle hitter Paula da Silva, who finished the match with a team-leading 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .310.
“Paula had 29 swings, which is much better than yesterday,” Hall said. “That helped a lot, and it was much more characteristic of her. Our outside hitters struggled a little bit, though.”
Defensively, the Lady Cougars did well, totaling 59 digs.
Giselle de Moura led with 17 digs. Gabriela Oliveira had 12 digs, Ashley Archer recorded nine and Juliana de Barros had eight.
Barton will graduate five sophomores — de Barros, Oliveira, de Moura, Taylor Arnold and Kamri Nehls.
Nehls, who tore her ACL with less than a month remaining in the season, had the opportunity to play in the tournament last year and support her team from the sideline this year.
“As a sophomore, it was a great honor to win regionals twice,” Nehls said. “It was a good experience. I definitely think that it gave me a different perspective this year. It is much harder to watch. It gave me a much different outlook, being able to help the girls from the sidelines.”
Hall said he would take away a number of good things from his first season at Barton.
“First of all, to win the conference and region title was an accomplishment,” Hall said. “Plus, to beat the second best team in the region five of the six times we’ve played this year was amazing. Seward was a great team.”
The Lady Cougars finish the season with a 29-14 record.