The Barton volleyball team had a series of goals heading into its own Barton Classic over the weekend.

First, get a little revenge on Cloud County, a team that beat them earlier in the year. Second, in the two matches the Cougars were heavy favorites to win, get some players off the bench some valuable playing.

And third, show the No. 3 ranked team in the nation, the Cougars could play with them.

Barton pretty much accomplished those goals.

Barton swept Labette, Cloud and Southeast Community College. The Cougars came out on fire, winning the opening set against No. 3 Iowa Western before succumbing in four.

The Cougars are 16-11 overall on the season.

“That Cloud game for us was payback for earlier this year,” Coach Brandon Stephenson said. “It also allowed our sophomores to have an overall winning record against Cloud in their two years.

“Against Labette and Southeast, those were good matches for us to work on some things. It allowed us to work on timing with other players in the match to see what we have in reserve so if someone goes down we have someone else ready to step up.”

But one of the most encouraging signs came when Barton came out and won the first set against Iowa Western.

“We knew from playing them earlier this season and knowing their history, it was going to be a tough match,” Coach Stephenson said. “But we had nothing to lose and we came out with a fury. We controlled the net, dug balls and played with a tempo we have been wanting to play with all year.

“We proved to ourselves we could play against teams ranked in the top 5 or top 10.”

Barton won that first set Friday evening against Iowa Western by a 25-20 score. Unfortunately, Iowa Western proved to be too much, winning the next three sets, 25-15, 25-15, 25-20.

Migle Mazurkeviciute led Barton with 12 kills in the match. Agnieska Paskevic had 20 assists and Kaila Harris 13 assists. Karina de Oliveira finished with 11 digs and Mackenzie Pease four blocks.

The weekend started Friday with a sweep of Labette that afternoon, 25-13, 26-24, 25-20.

Saturday’s first match for Barton was against Cloud. The Thunderbirds had beaten Barton in four sets earlier in the year at Barton’s first classic, but not this time around. Barton won 25-23, 25-10, 28-26.

Three Cougars reached double figures in kills led by Mazurkeviciute with 11 while Laine Alves and Oliveira both finished with 10. Paskevic led Barton with 18 assists and three service aces. Oliveira also had eight blocks to pace the Cougars.

Barton finished the weekend with a 25-23, 25-17, 25-18 win over Southeast out of Nebraska.

Kassidy Pflughoeft and Alves led Barton with eight kills while Harris and Paskevic had 15 and 14 assists. Lacey Mitchell led the defense with 12 digs and Ali-lissa Dotson had five blocks. Mitchell also had for service aces.

Barton has gone 14-5 since a 2-4 start to the season that saw them lose to a handful of ranked teams.

“We are starting to find a rhythm,” Coach Stephenson said. “Sometimes you forget how you’ve done the last 20 games or so because of our overall record. I think we scare some people when they only see our record and don’t realize the ranked teams we played right off the bat.

“Now we want to take that next step. To get a win against the teams ahead of us in the conference or teams that have beaten us. We will have those opportunities if we continue to play the way we have been.”

The Cougars will get that chance Wednesday with a trip to Liberal to take on No. 11 Seward County. The same two teams were back at the Barton Gym the following Monday.