By BRANDON SMITH
Barton Sports Info
The 4th ranked Barton Community College volleyball team wrapped up the tournament portion of the schedule on Saturday going 3-1 this weekend participating at the Sheila Worley Tournament held in Sterling, Colorado.
Barton fell from the unbeatens on Friday going 1-1, sweeping Laramie County Community College (25-21, 25-18, 25-23) before falling for the first time this season to No. 13 Odessa College in four sets (17-25, 23-25, 25-18, 20-25).
Facing a pair of ranked opponents in Saturday's action, the Cougars dropped the opening set 22-25 to No. 10 Indian Hills Community College before recovering to win the next three 25-22, 25-19, and 25-12. Barton concluded the weekend with a straight set victory (25-23, 25-20, 25-6) over No. 17 Western Nebraska Community College.
The results move Barton's record to 15-1 on the season while heading back into conference play Wednesday with a trip to Seward County Community College for a 6:30 p.m. first serve inside the Greenhouse.
Posting a trio of double-doubles on the weekend, Kassidy Nixon led the attack over the weekend recording double-digit kills in three of the four matches with 49 total kills in 14 sets on a .390 efficiency including a season high 17 kills in the four set win over Indian Hills. Nixon reached double-digit digs in all four matches leading the way with 58 while Mina Kaneko also helped anchor the backline with 52 digs, 18 coming against Odessa.
Defensively a trio of Cougars posted double-digit blocks led by Aubrey Olander's 14 total blockages to go along with 15 kills, Phoebe Reyes and Anna Wierzbicki were next in line with 11 and 10 walls of denials respectfully.
The sophomore setters of Elena Stankovic and Maurin Reyes keyed the 6-2 offense to an overall .283 efficiency, Stankovic averaging 5.64 assists per set while Reyes was just behind with 70 assists at 5.00 per set with a pair of double-double performances against Odessa and Indian Hills.