With a winless Garden City coming to the Barton Gym for Jayhawk West volleyball Monday night, it was a matter of taking care of business for the Cougar volleyball team.
But it was business the Cougars hadn’t conducted in nearly 10 days. Playing its first match since Sept. 8, it
took some time to shake free the rust but Barton swept Garden in three sets, winning 25-20, 25-16, 25-12.
Barton stayed within a game of the lead in the West at 3-1 in conference play. The Cougars are now above .500 overall at 8-7. Barton is 6-1 in its last seven matches and has won three straight.
Colby, Seward and Butler are all 4-0 in the Jayhawk West. Garden City remains winless on the year at 0-5 and 0-16.
Barton struggled in the opening set, using a late run to narrowly defeat the Broncbusters by the 25-20 final. Barton closed out a tight first set with the final four points.
The Cougars remained a bit sluggish through the second set until closing it out on a 17-3 run. The Cougars trailed 13-8 in the set before a 6-0 run gave them the lead. Barton would add another 6-0 and once again finish on a 4-0 run to take command of the match.
The third set was never really a contest as Garden City barely got to double digits. The Busters still had some hope at 20-12 but the Cougars were again strong at the end, scoring the final five points for the match.
Sophomore Kate Deterding led the hitting attack with six kills in the three sets followed by freshman Migle Mazurkeviciute with four. Four more Cougars finished with three kills as 15 Cougars saw action in the win.
Kaila Harris and Agnieska Paskevic both finished with 13 assists to pace Barton while Karina Oliveira and Harris finished with eight digs apiece. Deterding contributed six digs to the cause.
Deterding and Mackenzie Pease each had two blocks.
The Cougars will hit the road for more than a week with a chance to move closer to the top spot in the West.
Barton will travel to one of the West unbeatens Wednesday with a trip to Colby to take on the Trojans. That is followed by a contest in El Dorado Monday against the currently 4-0 Butler Grizzlies. Butler will play Hutchinson and Colby prior to the Barton match.
Colby is not only 4-0 in the West but the Trojans are a perfect 13-0 on the season and moved into the Top 20 this week in that 20th and final spot.