For more information contact Coach Jaime Cabral, 620-792-9378 or Barton Sports Information Director Mike Marzolf, 620-792-9310
November 8, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release by Mike Marzolf
The Barton Community College volleyball team was the one celebrating when the Region VI tournament came to a close Sunday afternoon in Wichita on the campus of Newman University. The Cougars held off Seward County in a 2nd title match to earn the team’s 1st Region VI Championship in three years. Barton will now prepare for its spot in the upcoming NJCAA National Championships to be held Nov 18-20 in West Plains, Missouri. Barton (26-8) will be making its 20th appearance at the NJCAA tournament, winning a National Championship in 2003.
Highlights
The Cougars played their way through the winner’s bracket unbeaten with wins over Pratt and Seward. Barton knocked off Pratt Friday afternoon 25-17 28-26 17-25 25-22 to move into the winner’s bracket final Saturday afternoon. The Cougars outlasted Seward in that thrilling match, winning 19-25 25-22 23-25 25-13 17-15. That put the Cougars in position to have to be beaten twice by the loser’s bracket winner.
Again, it proved to be Seward in the way of Barton and the Region VI title Sunday with the Saints turning the tables on Barton with a 5-game match win of their own. Seward knocked off Barton 20-25 25-17 27-25 14-25 15-13 to force a 2nd championship contest to follow. This time Barton had no trouble, winning quickly as Seward began to tire after its trip through the loser’s bracket. The Cougars rolled in 3 games, 25-15 25-18 25-7.
Barton hit the ball with great efficiency in the final match of the championships, hitting .451 with 36 kills in 71 attempts. Barton had just 4 hitting errors the entire match. Malia Tonga led Barton with 9 kills in 15 attempts with no errors. Gabriela Oliveira had 8 kills with no errors in 19 attempts and Juliana Barros had 7 kills in 9 attempts. Barros also had 24 assists while Oliveira led four Cougars in double digit digs with 16. Barros added 13 while Tonga and Morgan Cooper each had 12.
In first championship contest won by Seward, Barton had 24 hitting errors in the 5-game loss. Tonga led Barton with 15 kills, followed by Oliveira with 10. Barros led Barton with 27 assists while Oliveira and Tonga each had 22 digs in the loss.
In the all-important winner’s bracket final which gave the Cougars the one-game cushion going into Sunday, Barton managed to come back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 in games to earn the win at 17-15 in the 5th and deciding game. The Cougars had three hitters reach double figures in kills with Tonga leading the way with 13, followed by Oliveira and Raney Okeson with 12 and 10. Barros had 35 assists while Cooper led 6 Cougars in double digit digs with 22.
Barton won its opening round game in the double-elimination bracket over Pratt behind a 14-kill game from Oliveira. Tonga added 12 kills and Barros 33 assists. Barros also had 3 service aces and Oliveira snagged 20 digs. Okeson led Barton with 4 blocks – 2 solo.
The Cougars will find out their seeding for the NJCAA Championships Wednesday but Barton is probably looking at one of the bottom seeds since the Cougars are currently unranked in the NJCAA poll. Of the 16 qualifiers 13 or 14 – depending on one district yet to be decided – are teams ranked in the Top 20 in the latest NJCAA poll.
Stats
Stats can be found at
www.bartonsports.com
Next
Nov 18 – v TBA TBA (NJCAA National Championships at West Plains, Mo)
Check out Barton Volleyball Online at www.bartonsports.com
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