Rust apparent; Broncbusters fall in three to Barton in return to the floor

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-16 days, six postponements and a full team in quarantine, that's been life for the Broncbuster volleyball squad the past three weeks. But finally, after a season filled with adversity, Garden City was back on the floor on Saturday night.

Unfortunately, the rust definitely showed.

Mylena Testoni had 10 kills, Isabella Guedes added 23 assists, and Barton stormed past Garden City in three sets 11-25, 11-25, 19-25 at Conestoga Arena.

In essence, it was complete domination by the Cougars, who trailed only twice the entire match; once after a Tauja Durham block put Garden City up, 2-1 in the opening set and the other time happened in the second frame when Joelle LaForce's attack sailed out of bounds to put Garden City in front, 4-3. Other than that, the match was never close.

The Cougars quickly went on the offensive in the first stanza, ripping off an 8-1 run punctuated by Testoni's spike that made it 9-3. They built their first double-digit advantage on Testoni's block, then finished off the set with a kill from the sophomore followed by a Durham hitting error.

In the second set, Garden City's early advantage didn't last long at all. Angel Sherman committed a service error, and Jadyn Brown powered a crosscourt kill that gave the Cougars the lead for good. It was all part of a 21-7 surge to put Barton up two sets to none.

The Broncbusters managed to keep things close in the third, tying the set at 9 on a soft tap by Reagan Karlin. But Alli Meng's ensuing serve went long, former Dodge City High School multi-sport athlete Madison Armstrong notched a service ace, and Barton was up 11-9. In fact, each time Garden City knotted the score, the Cougars had an answer. But in the end, the Broncbusters were just flat all night, and down 20-19, Barton finished them off by scoring the final five points capped by Laren Baldowsky's attacked that landed five feet out of bounds.

The Broncbusters dropped their first conference match of the season and are now 7-7 overall. They host Pratt on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.