For more information contact Coach Jaime Cabral, 620-792-9378 or Barton Sports Information Director Mike Marzolf, 620-792-9310
November 16, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release by Mike Marzolf
The Barton Community College volleyball team will head to its 20th NJCAA National Tournament in school history this week when they travel to West Plains, Missouri for the 2010 version of the event. The Cougars will take with them the No. 15 seed in the 16-team event. That will pit Barton against Western Wyoming in the opening round, the tournament’s 2nd seed. The Cougars and Mustangs will serve things off Thursday at 11 am at the West Plains Civic Center.
Barton
The Cougars are returning to the event for the 1st time in 3 years, when they placed 9th. Barton won the NJCAA title in 2003. Barton finished 4th in the Jayhawk West this year but battled through the Region VI tournament to win the title over Seward County. The Cougars are 26-8 on the season.
Barton has been led in hitting by Malia Tonga with 325 kills for nearly 3 per game. Raney Okeson is 2nd at 297. Juliana Barros had 922 assists for 8 per contest while Okeson leads in blocks with 71 – 23 solo. Barros also leads Barton with 60 service aces. Morgan Cooper leads five Cougars with more than 300 digs, posting a season-high 420 for Barton. The Cougars average nearly 18 per contest.
Barton started the season somewhat slow, losing its 1st 2 Jayhawk West games and holding a 6-4 record 10 games into the season. The Cougars then put together a 9-game winning streak before dropping road games at Dodge and Pratt – the top two finishers in the West.
Since that time, Barton has been playing very good volleyball. Barton won 7 of its final 8 games of the year, including a win over West Champion Pratt at the Barton Gym. The only loss in that stretch was at rival Seward. The Cougars then cruised by Colby to start the playoffs and posted wins over Pratt and Seward to make it to the title game unbeaten. Seward did force a 2nd title game but the Cougars prevailed in 3 quick games.
Barton Coach Jaime Cabral is in just his 2nd season at the helm of the Cougars. He will guide a hot Cougar team to West Plains as winners of 11 of their last 13 matches.
Western Wyoming
The Mustangs have been ranked nearly all season long. Western Wyoming was not ranked in the preseason poll but vaulted to No. 10 in the 1st in-season poll Sept 8. That ranking came with a 6-3 record to start the year but with losses to a pair of top 5 teams and a big win over the preseason No. 1 ranked team in College of Southern Idaho.
The win over Southern Idaho started a 15-match winning streak that concluded with a win over then No. 3 Western Nebraska. The streak ended with a loss to No. 2 ranked Salt Lake. The Mustangs beat 5 ranked teams in that stretch and climbed to 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.
The Mustangs did lose in the winner’s bracket final of the Region IX tournament to Laramie in 5 games but came back to win the loser’s bracket then beat Laramie twice to capture the region championship.
Western Wyoming is led in hitting by 6-1 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. 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 1245 assists.
Rick Reynolds is in his 3rd year coaching and like Barton Coach Cabral is heading to his 1st national tournament. Western Wyoming has been to the tournament a couple times the past few years, making appearances in 2004 and 2006.
The Field
The Cougars will play either the 7th or 10th seed in the second round. If Barton wins, it will take on the winner of the Florida State-Jacksonville/Eastern Arizona contest at 5:30 later in the day Thursday. A loss would pit the Cougars against the loser of that contest Friday at 10 am. Jacksonville won is currently 30-7 and the 7th seed while Eastern Arizona is 30-4 and the 10th seed.
The field is a very strong field as 14 of the 16 teams are ranked in the Top 20. Only Barton and 16th seed Gadsden State (29-9) from Alabama are not ranked. Miami Dade is the top seed with its perfect mark of 33-0. All top 6 ranked teams – Miami-Dade, Western Wyoming, San Jacinto (Texas), Western Nebraska, Blinn (Texas), and North Idaho all made the field and are the top 6 seeds.
The national semifinals will start Friday at 6:30 pm with the championship contest set to start at 6:30 Saturday night. All games will be streamed by the NJCAA on the web and can be seen at www.njcaa.org/tv .
Stats
Stats can be found at
www.bartonsports.com
Next
Nov 18 – v Western Wyoming 11 am (NJCAA National Championships at West Plains, Mo)
Check out Barton Volleyball Online at www.bartonsports.com
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