Playing out of state has not been kind for the Barton Community College volleyball team as the Cougars dropped four matches at the Wyo-Braska Tournament. Barton limps home with a 3-16 record on the season after going 0-12 in three out-of-state tournaments this season. The Cougars, 2-3 in conference play, will wrap up its 21-day away schedule on Tuesday in El Dorado, Kansas, in a 6:30 p.m. conference match against the 1-3 and 7-8 Butler Community College Grizzlies. Barton will return to the friendly confines of the Barton Gym on Wednesday in a non-conference match with Marshalltown Community College.
Barton opened the two-day tournament on Friday in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, dropping a pair of matches with the first coming against Laramie County Community College. The Cougars took the first set 25-23 but the Golden Eagles won the next two sets 25-22 and 25-15 to take a set lead in the match. Barton battled back in the fourth earning a hard fought 25-23 win to force a fifth set but the Cougars came out on the short end of a 15-12 score.
The Cougars second match of the day didn’t fare as well as Barton lost in straight sets to No. 5 and host Western Nebraska Community College 25-15, 25-17, and 25-14.
Traveling the short distance to Torrington, Wyoming, for Saturday’s action, the Cougars dropped the first set to Central Wyoming Community College 25-14. Barton bounced back for a 24-19 win in the second only to have the Rustlers gain the match advantage earning a 28-26 victory. In an almost carbon copy of Friday’s first match, the Cougars clawed back in the fourth to win 25-22 to force its second five-set match in the last twenty-four hours. Holding a slim 13-12 lead, the Cougars went scoreless the rest of the fifth falling 15-13.
Less than an hour later Barton returned to the hard court to wrap up play in the tournament with a rematch against a Sheridan College team that defeated the Cougars 3-1 seven days prior at the NJC Pizza Hut Invitational. After losing the first set 25-22 Barton stormed back for a 25-19 win but that was all the Cougars could muster in losing the remaining sets 25-19 and 25-18.
