NJCAA Volleyball
National tournament
Thursday
Match 1 — San Jacinto vs. Jefferson, 9 a.m.
Match 2 — North Idaho vs. Iowa Western, 9 a.m.
Match 3 — Florida State-Jacksonville vs. Eastern Arizona, 11 a.m.
Match 4 — Western Wyoming vs. Barton, 11 a.m.
Match 5 — Miami-Dade vs. Gadsden State, 1 p.m.
Match 6 — Salt Lake vs. Midland, 1 p.m.
Match 7 — Blinn vs. Temple, 3 p.m.
Match 8 — Western Nebraska vs. Wallace State, 3 p.m.
Match 9 — Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2, 5:30 p.m.
Match 10 — Winner Match 3 vs. Winner Match 4, 5:30 p.m.
Match 11 — Winner Match 5 vs. Winner Match 6, 7:30 p.m.
Match 12 — Match 7 vs. Match 8, 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Match 13 — Loser Match 1 vs. Loser Match 2, 10 a.m.
Match 14 — Loser Match 3 vs. Loser Match 4, 10 a.m.
Match 15 — Loser Match 5 vs. Loser Match 6, Noon
Match 16 — Loser Match 7 vs. Loser Match 8, Noon
Match 17 — Loser Match 9 vs. Loser Match 10, 2:30 p.m.
Match 18 — Loser Match 11 vs. Loser Match 12, 2:30 p.m.
Match 19 — Winner Match 13 vs. Winner Match 14, 4:30 p.m.
Match 20 — Winner Match 15 vs. Winner Match 16, 4:30 p.m.
Match 21 — Winner Match 9 vs. Winner Match 10, 6:30 p.m.
Match 22 — Winner Match 11 vs. Winner Match 12, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday
Match 23 — Winner Match 19 vs. Winner Match 20, 10 a.m.
Match 24 — Loser Match 17 vs. Loser Match 18, Noon
Match 25 — Winner Match 17 vs. Winner Match 18, 2 p.m.
Match 26 — Loser Match 21 vs. Loser Match 22, 4:30 p.m.
Match 27 — Winner 21 vs. Winner Match 22, 6:30 p.m.
When the Barton Community College volleyball team steps onto the court at 11 a.m. today to square off against No. 2-ranked Western Wyoming, Juliana Barros will be the most efficient volleyball player in the match.
The Lady Cougars’ Barros, who hails from Sao Paulo, Brazil, has a 45-percent hit efficiency, ranking her in 11th place in the NJCAA statistical charts.
In spite of that, the Lady Cougars are still riding into the NJCAA national tournament, which starts today in West Plains, Mo., as an underdog.
“We are flying under the radar at the tournament,” Lady Cougars head coach Jaime Cabral said. “I think we are still competitive. We might turn some heads.
“Our team has progressed this season where other teams stay the same all season long.”
The Mustangs have a number of wins against ranked opponents throughout the year, including Southern Idaho, Western Nebraska and Salt Lake.
“Western Wyoming’s conference is stacked up to help prepare each other for the postseason,” Cabral said.
The Mustangs do have the size advantage over the Lady Cougars with 6-foot-4 middle Chelsea Sorensen and 6-1 Olivera Medic, but Cabral said that it doesn’t worry him too much.
“They are a very big team,” Cabral said. “Based on the scouting report, like every team, they can have mental lapses and not play as a unit.
“We play together better. We just need to control the ball well and stay away from the couple of girls they want to get the ball to.”
If the Lady Cougars upset the Mustangs, they will play the winner of the match between Florida State-Jacksonville and Eastern Arizona College at 5:30 p.m. the same day.
“The first win would be huge for us,” Cabral said. “We win that match and we basically take Western Wyoming’s second-seed spot.
“That would give us a relatively easy road to the championships.”
BCC volleyball notebook
Barton
• The Lady Cougars are returning to the NJCAA national tournament for the first time in three years. In 2007, they placed ninth.
• Barton won the NJCAA national championship in 2003. The Lady Cougars finished in fourth place in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West Division but battled through the Region VI tournament to win the title over Seward County. The Lady Cougars are 26-8 on the season.
• Barton is led in hitting by Malia Tonga with 325 kills, averaging nearly 3.0 per game. Raney Okeson is second at 297.
• Juliana Barros has 922 assists for 8.0 per contest while Okeson leads in blocks with 71, including 23 solo blocks. Barros also leads Barton with 60 aces.
• Morgan Cooper leads the Lady Cougars in digs with a season-high 420 for Barton. The Lady Cougars average nearly 18 per contest.
• Barton Coach Jaime Cabral is in the midst of his second season at the helm of the Lady Cougars.
• Barton enters the tourney on a hot streak, winning 11 of its last 13 matches.
Western Wyoming
The Mustangs have been ranked nearly all season.
Western Wyoming was not ranked in the preseason poll but vaulted to No. 10 in the first in-season poll on Sept. 8.
The Mustangs beat five ranked teams in a 15-match winning streak and climbed to No. 4 in the polls. Western Wyoming did not lose another game the rest of the regular season, ending with a 32-4 record and the No. 2 ranking.
Western Wyoming is led in hitting by 6-foot-1 freshman Olivera Medic with 402 kills. She is followed by 6-4 sophomore Chelsea Sorensen and 5-10 freshman Viktorija Teivane with 353 and 302, respectively.
Arielle Allen, a 6-0 freshman, is a force in the middle with 114 blocks this season along with 85 from Sorensen. Sophomore Kristi Knowles is the setter for the Mustangs collecting 1,245 assists.
Rick Reynolds is in his third year coaching and, like Cabral, is heading to his first national tournament. Western Wyoming has been to the tournament in 2004 and 2006.
The Field
The Lady Cougars will play either the seventh or 10th seed in the second round of the double-elimination tournament.
If Barton wins, it will take on the winner of the Florida State-Jacksonville/Eastern Arizona contest at 5:30 p.m. later in the day, Thursday.
A loss would pit the Lady Cougars against the loser of that contest, Friday at 10 a.m. Jacksonville, the seventh seed, is currently 30-7 and Eastern Arizona is 30-4 and the 10th seed.
The field is a very strong as 14 of the 16 teams are ranked in the Top 20. Only Barton and 16th-seeded Gadsden State (29-9) from Alabama are not ranked.
Miami-Dade is the top seed with its perfect mark of 33-0. All of the teams ranked in the top 6 — Miami-Dade, Western Wyoming, San Jacinto of Texas, Western Nebraska, Blinn of Texas, and North Idaho — made the field and are the top six seeds.
The national semifinals will start Friday at 6:30 p.m., with the championship contest set to start at 6:30 on Saturday.
