The Barton Community College volleyball team kept its streak alive.
On Wednesday night, the Cougars swept Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division foe Dodge City at Kirkman Activity Center, 25-18, 25-19 and 25-18.
The Cougars, ranked No. 11 in the latest NJCAA poll which came out on Wednesday, are currently 7-0 overall, 3-0 in KJCCC matches.
Not only that, but Barton is 21-0 in sets, having swept every match this season.
“This was our first home match and we were hoping to turn up the energy a little bit,” Cougars head coach Patrick Hall said. “Now we’re 21-0 and we’re fighting that. You know, it was 15-0, then it was 18-0 and now it’s 21-0. Every set has been like this, it seems like.
“We have a little bit of struggle. We keep it close, and then we have to turn it up at the end. We have one more on Monday, and then we’re out with the big girls.”
The Cougars kept toe-to-toe with the Lady Conquistadors in the first game until Barton went on a 5-0 run to take a 12-7 lead.
Dodge City kept the Cougars on the ropes by lofting volleys over 6-foot-2 middle blocker Paula da Silva to keep up with Barton.
“The thing is, we know that people are going to do that,” Hall said. “We know we’ve got a pretty good blocker. We know they’re going to go to roll shots and deep corner tips. It took us a lot longer than I would have liked to make those adjustments. We talk about it before the game. We know what people are going to do, and that’s how people can score points against us.”
Another area the Cougars struggled with was serving.
“Missed serves are absolutely becoming the bane of our existence,” Hall said. “Those games are nearly as close if we didn’t have those missed serves.
“That’s just something that we need to get past.”
Da Silva led the Cougars with 16 kills and Gabriela Oliveira added eight kills.
Juliana de Barros, who was playing ill, led the team with 37 assists.