The Barton Community College men’s soccer team has already put up a couple of wins, but that was in preseason games.
Now the real test begins.
Today at 4 p.m., the Cougars challenge Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa on the road.
“We’ve had two preseason games,” head coach Aaron Avila said. “We played better in Game 2, but I really don’t know what to expect.
“Northern Oklahoma is a great team, so it should be a good test to see where we’re at.”
Barton defeated Sterling 1-0 to open the preseason, and Tabor College 2-0.
 
BCC women’s soccer still search for season’s first win
While the Lady Cougars have both won and lost a game in 2014, neither were regular-season games.
Barton has a 2-0 loss against McPherson and a 3-0 victory over Bethel, but it’s lone regular-season game was a 1-1 tie against Western Wyoming.
“We’ve been missing  players in every game so far,”  Avila said, “so it’s hard to say what we’d look like complete. We’re going to be missing two players for this game, but we do have a lot of good players.”
 
Lady Cougars look to right ship
The Barton volleyball team has started the season struggling.
The Lady Cougars competed in a tournament at Iowa Western, falling in four matches.
Barton managed to win one game in the 13 played, a 29-27 victory over Cowley County.
Cowley rallied to win the next three games to win the match.
“We look young and inexperienced,” head coach Phil Shoemaker said. “I like the energy and what we’re doing, but we still have a long way to go.
“We learned a lot about ourselves, playing a lot of nationally-ranked opponents.”
Today, Barton gets a chance to turn things around.
The Lady Cougars hosts Seward County at 6:30 p.m. at Kirkman Activity Center.
“It’s always good to come home,” Shoemaker said. “It’s our court, our fans, comfortable surroundings.
“Seward County is up there with the team’s we’ve already played, so this will be good for us. It’ll be good, but not easy.”
The match opens Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division play for Barton.