A frustrating season for the Barton Community College volleyball team came to an end Sunday in the opening round of the Region VI Championships. Barton’s season ended with a 24-26, 25-18, 25-16, 25-15 loss to Colby at the Sports Arena in Hutchinson.
The Cougars could never seem to put together a run of momentum on the season, finishing the season with a 7-26 record and the first round exit from the post-season.
“It is disappointing that we did not show the progress we have made because we were so inconsistent,” Coach Phil Shoemaker said of his team’s season. “Unfortunately that has been our most consistent trait.”
The Cougars opened the match with a nail-biting win in the opening set. Barton and Colby traded the lead but a 4-0 run by Barton put the Cougars on top 24-23 on the way to the 26-24 win.
“Things started fairly well for us,” Coach Shoemaker said. “We were not perfect by any means in the first set, but we battled pretty well and played them close enough so that when they did crack a bit we were able to jump on them a little and compete well enough and long enough to get that one.”
“Sets two, three and four we didn’t maintain our composure very well. We made too many errors of all kinds any it ruined our chances.”
That started pretty early in the second set as Colby took a 9-6 lead with a 4-0 run and kept going. The lead went as high as 18-10 before Barton battled back some to make it 18-13 before Colby closed the set out at 25-18.
Colby again played from the lead nearly the entire way in the third set on the way to the 25-16 lead and did likewise in the fourth set in the 25-15 win.
The Cougars had 33 kills in the match but also had 26 hitting errors. Sophomore Jessie Sewell led the way with nine kills. Sophomore Casey Friesen closed out her career with a team-high 15 assists. Freshman Jordan Edelman had three service aces for Barton.
Defensively, Hoisington sophomore Mykela Riedl led Barton with 16 digs followed by Friesen with 15.
“We thank our sophomores for their efforts, contributions, and we know they will do well as they move on,” Coach Shoemaker said. “We know our returning athletes will want to take the tough lessons learned and amp up their training to assure future success.”