The Barton Community College volleyball team has won the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division title.
The Lady Cougars went 25-11 overall, 13-1 in the KJCCC this season.
Tonight at 6:30, Barton will host Garden City in the opening round of the NJCAA Region VI tournament.
Garden City is 0-14 in the conference and finished the season with a 1-31 record, earning its one win against Adams State junior varsity in four games.
“They’re at the bottom of the conference,” Barton head coach Patrick Hall said. “You never hope to look at it that way, though. We just have to get out there and work on our game. You can’t overlook anybody because on the other side of the net is a team and a coach that knows what they are doing. They are going to come into (tonight) with an upset in mind.”
Barton’s one blemish on its conference record came at the hands of Colby on Oct. 20, a solid record for a coach’s first season with a new program.
“I think anybody who comes to Barton expects success,” Hall said. “That’s just the tradition that this school has. (Barton assistant coach Andrea Rasmussen) did a great job recruiting. It seemed more like you had to come in here and do something terrible to mess it up. All of the pieces were in the right place.”
The winner of the match will face the winner of the Dodge City-Hutchinson match, which will be played tonight, at Newman University in Wichita on Saturday.