Box Score by Kevin Buczek
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-The Barton College women's volleyball team held early leads in all three sets but were unable to hold on as Nova Southeastern University earned a 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-19) win in the last match Friday evening in Don Taft University Center to wrap up day one of the seventh annual Shark Classic.
The Sharks, who opened up with a 3-0 win against Virginia State University Friday afternoon, moved to 2-0. The Lady Bulldogs (0-2) dropped both of their season-opening matches Friday in straight sets. Barton will look to get into the win column in its final two matches in the Sunshine State on Saturday playing Lynn University at 9 a.m. and University of Sioux Falls at 2 p.m.
Junior middle blocker Melissa Cochran once again led the Lady Bulldogs attack with 10 kills. Cochran, who had a team-best seven spikes in the opener against Rollins College earlier in the day, hit .368 against NSU. Cochran recorded three block assists and had Barton's lone ace for a 12.5 point performance.
Freshman outside hitter Kaitlyn Micol followed with six kills. Classmate Amber Kelly totaled nine assists, five digs and three block assists. Junior libero Corinna Morton led BC with six assists.
Barton came out hot attempting to knock off the host institution on the main court in Friday's nightcap holding a lead on six different occasions in the first set but the Sharks survived the scare. A Micol spike put the Lady Bulldogs ahead for a final time at 9-8 but NSU won the next seven points to take over at 15-9 en route to the seven-point win.
After Barton won the first point of the middle set, Nova Southeastern rattled off five points to pull ahead for the remainder of the period. The Sharks increased the lead throughout and the final 25-14 score was the largest advantage of the set.
NSU took the first three points of the third but Barton followed with an ensuing 5-1 run to take its only lead at 5-4. The Sharks won the next seven serves to regain the lead for good at 11-5. Nova Southeastern continued to lead by six, 18-12, before the Lady Bulldogs raced back with a 6-2 run to pull within two points. A smash by Cochran closed the run that inched Barton to within 20-18 but the Sharks finished off the match by winning five of the next six points.
Neither team hit well with NSU attacking at a .014 hitting percentage and Barton hitting in the negative again at -.069. However, the Sharks used a strong defensive effort of 32 digs and eight service aces to win.
Sydney Cook led the hosts with 13 digs and seven kills. Dana Holger had NSU-best nine kills.
