The Barton Community College volleyball team won both of its matches in impressive fashion on Saturday in the NJCAA Region VI playoffs held at Newman University in Wichita.
Barton started the day with a three-set sweep of Hutchinson, followed with another sweep, this against Seward County in the winner’s bracket finals.
Barton, the top seed in the tournament, will play in the championship game today at 2 p.m. against the Hutchinson-Seward winner.
In the region’s semifinals against Hutch, Barton controlled from the onset, building a 12-6 lead to win 25-20. After a 4-4 tie in second set, the Lady Cougars outscored Hutch 21-10 the rest of the way to win 25-14. The third set was much the same as Barton never let Hutch into the match, and jumped out to a 13-4 lead enroute to a 25-14 final score that gave Barton the sweep.
In the winner’s bracket finals late Saturday evening, Barton and Seward traded points in set one and were tied at 15. After a two-point run by Barton and a Seward timeout, the Lady Cougars extended their lead to four at 21-17. After back-to-back errors by Barton to draw Seward to within two at 23-21, the Lady Cougars closed out the set to win 25-22. The second set was a much different story as Barton jumped on Seward early to take a 6-1 lead. The Lady Saints were never able to recover as Barton went on to cruise thru the second set 25-10. Barton wrapped up the match and its place in the championship game on Sunday by continuing its dominance over Seward and winning 25-13.
Barton will be seeking its second straight Region VI Championship and national tournament berth on Sunday against the winner of the Seward-Hutch match. Since the Region VI Tournament format is double elimination, Barton would have to lose twice for that not to happen. First serve for the Championship game is 2:00 p.m. and can be viewed via the internet at www.BartonSports.com.
Barton women’s basketball team drops two games over weekend
MIDLAND — The Barton women’s basketball team fell to host Midland on Friday and Cochise College on Saturday at the Midland College Tip-Off Classic.
The Lady Cougars fell 84-36 to the No. 3-ranked Midland to open the classic.
Cochise bested Barton 58-50 on Saturday.
The Lady Cougars, who are 1-2 this season, will be hosting the Tabor junior varsity on Tuesday night at 6 at Kirkman Activity Center.
No other information was made available.