Barton completes season sweep of Garden City

Garden City, KS-For the second time this season, Garden City came up snake eyes against Barton. 

Phoebe Reyes had 14 kills, Elena Stankovic added 26 assists, and the first-place Cougars downed the Broncbusters in four sets 23-25, 19-25, 25-21, 22-25. The loss dropped Garden City to 13-9 overall and 3-5 in conference. Barton meantime won their seventh straight match to improve to a league-best 8-1 and 18-3 overall.  

And to think, Garden City was in the driver's seat in the opening set leading 20-15 after Jelena Milovanovic's powerful block on a Barton attack. But the Cougars stormed back with seven straight points to take the lead; then closed out the frame when Kassidy Nixon rejected Pinar Dugeroglu at the net.  

It was an uphill climb from there.  

Barton raced out to a 19-10 lead in the second before Garden City pulled to within four late in the set. But that's as close as Patrick Hiltz's team got. Reyes pounded home a kill, and Julia Brazil hit the ball into the net. 

The Broncbusters though bounced back in the third, finishing the set on a 7-3 surge capped by Dugeroglu's hammer that sliced Barton's lead to 2-1. But after leading for much of the fourth set, Garden City couldn't finish. And as they did in the first, Barton closed strong, zipping by the Broncbusters with a 10-3 run that was polished off by a net violation. 

Stedile had 21 digs for the Broncbusters, which lost its second straight match. Dugeroglu led the way with 16 kills, and Tola Maczka had 32 assists.