It was a win the Barton Community College volleyball team needed – for several reasons.

First and foremost it was the conference opener for both schools as Barton defeated Garden City in four sets Wednesday night at the Barton Gym. Barton lost the opening set then finished off the Broncbusters with wins in three straight.

Barton won the Jayhawk West match, 22-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-23. The win moves the Cougars to 2-3 overall while Garden City falls to 0-5.

“It was good to get a win in our first KJCCC action,” coach Phil Shoemaker said, “and it was great to see some really gritty, disciplined effort to close out the match.”

In addition to the importance of it being the West opener the match was against a team the Cougars had never lost. Barton is now 32-0 all-time against Garden City. It was also a team picked to finish below the Cougars in the standings and started a 3-match home stand over the next six days.

It is a home stand in which the youthful Cougars have a great chance to gain experience while collecting wins.

The Cougars led most of a very close first set before Garden City took its first lead at 23-22 breaking the sets’ 11th tie. Garden City closed out the match with a 25-22 win.

Barton came back to take the lead again early in the second set and maintained a slim lead a majority of the way. Barton closed out the set with an Olivia Naccarato block for the 25-20 win.

With the third set tied at 9-all, Barton scored five of six to gain control of the set and kept that lead for the 25-17 win.

Garden took control of the fourth set and led by as many as six on a couple of occasions. Garden still had command of the set with a 23-18 lead late.

Barton rallied to make it 23-21 capped by a service ace from Nathalia Gouveia that forced the first Garden timeout. Barton took the lead when sophomore Emily Deterding placed the ball out of the reach of the Broncbuster libero in the deep corner to give Barton match point at 24-23.

Following a second Garden City timeout Deterding put the match away with a cross court kill to close out the comeback and the match 25-23.

“Down 18-23 it was a major hill to climb, and it took a lot from everyone involved,” Shoemaker said of the comeback. “We did make the evening a bit more dramatic than it needed to be, due primarily to sub-standard performances in our serving and passing game.

“We will work to improve in all areas before our next match, and considering the effort this team gives I believe we will take another step forward.”

Naccarato led the hitting attack with 14 kills and just four errors. Gouveia added 12 kills. Lydia Konrade paced the Cougars’ defense with 19 digs followed by Mallory McQueen and Gouveia with 11.

McQueen also recorded 36 assists. Brittany Ostmeyer, Gouveia, and Deterding all had two service aces.

“We had nice performances by Nathalia (Gouveia), Lydia (Konrade), Olivia (Naccarato), and Mallory (McQueen),” coach Shoemaker said. ”They certainly “anchored” our team performance, and we a had nice “off the bench” contribution from Brittany Ostmeyer.”

The Cougars will get a pair of junior varsity teams in for the next two matches with the Bethany JV in town Saturday for a Noon first serve and the Sterling JV in Monday at 6 p.m.

Then it will be back to Jayhawk West play at Dodge City Wednesday.