Just maybe the Barton volleyball is finding its stride.
The Cougars earned their second straight sweep of a Jayhawk West foe Wednesday night with a sweep of Butler at the Barton Gym.
Barton had it in cruise control with the win over the Grizzlies. The Cougars rolled to a 25-15, 25-16, 25-14 straight set win. That is on the heels of a sweep of Dodge City last week.
The Cougars are now 5-7 in the West and 8-20 overall. Barton is sitting in sixth place with games against the fourth and fifth place teams up next.
“The Butler match was a nice win,” Barton Coach Phil Shoemaker said.
Barton was never threatened in the match. The Cougars used a 5-1 in the opening set to grab a 14-9 lead. After pulling away at the midway point of the second set the Cougars gained control of the third set with a 4-0 run to grab a 9-6 lead then pulled away.
Sophomores Jordan Edelman and Emily Deterding led the way hitting for Barton. Edelman finished with nine kills and one error while Deterding added eight kills to just one error.
“We had really strong offensive performances from Jordan Edelman and Emily Deterding,” Coach Shoemaker said. “We were very aggressive and intelligent.”
Mallory McQueen had five service aces and Nathalia Gouveia added four. McQueen also had 20 assists and Lydia Konrade 14 digs.
“Our serving game was the best we’ve had; 14 aces and 5 errors,” Coach Shoemaker said. “We successfully battled through some injury and illness situations, which allowed more opportunity for us to go a bit into our bench.”
The next two matches will allow the Cougars a chance to move up in the standings. Barton will travel to Colby Saturday and host Pratt Wednesday. Currently the Colby is 7-5 in the West in fifth while Pratt is 7-4 and in fourth.