#11 Cougars extend winning streak to seven

A superb defensive effort by the Cougars,  and a sixteen kill performance from Paula da Silva, extended the Barton Volleyball team’s 2011 record to 7-0 with a 25-18, 25-19, 25-18 win over Dodge City on Wednesday night.  The Cougars have yet to drop a single set and are now 21-0.  Barton, currently ranked #11 in the nation, remains in first place in the Jayhawk Conference.

“We put together one of our best passing and defensive efforts of the season tonight,” said Head Coach Patrick Hall.  “The passing of Gabi, Giselle and Ashley gave us the foundation for our middle attack, which of course allowed Paula to have another superb night.  We still struggled with our serving inconsistency,   but our defense and Juliana’s setting gave us a bit of a margin to work with.  It was great to have Kamri Nehls return to the lineup, and Ju put in an inspiring performance despite  being ill.”

That defense came up with a season high 49 digs, led by sophomore libero Giselle de Moura’s 16 and setter Juliana de Barros’ 12.  Sophomore Gabriela Oliveira was also in double figures with 10. De Barros pulled off a double/double with 33 assists for an 11 assists/set average.

Offensively, the Cougars were again led by their stellar middle Paula da Silva.  Da Silva paced Barton with 16 kills and no errors on 19 attempts.  Already ranked #8 in the nation with a .550 hitting percentage, da Silva augmented that position with her .842 performance, which included an 8 for 8 string in the first set.

Behind da Silva, the team hit 14 of 25 in the first set for a .560 average.  There were no errors. However, that dropped to .176 in the second set, as the Cougars committed 7 hitting errors to go with 13 kills in 34 attempts.  In the final set, Barton hit only marginally better at .180, connecting for 11 kills with 5 errors in 33 attempts.

The Cougars seven aces were offset by 11 serving errors for the night.  Giselle de Moura and freshman Ashley Archer each had two aces.  The Cougars also had seven blocks.

Barton will travel to Hutchinson on Monday for a 6:30 match against the 5-6 Blue Dragons.

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