Box Score by Benny Benton
BANNER ELK, N.C. – Barton College suffered its third consecutive setback Saturday afternoon, falling to division-leading Lees-McRae College in straight sets (25-17, 25-15, 25-18) at Williams Gymnasium.
The loss dropped the Lady Bulldogs (7-13, 5-5) two and a half games behind the Conference Carolinas North Division front-running Bobcats (13-7, 8-3) and into fourth place in the division.
Lees-McRae received outstanding play from sophomore outside hitter Avalon Liscio, who recorded a match-high 12 kills while hitting an impressive .524. Junior Jordan Banta contributed nine kills with a .421 attack percentage, and junior Jariliz Cotte added nine kills as well.
However, Barton hurt itself by producing an equal number of errors and kills. The .000 attack percentage was the lowest of the year and the worst hitting effort since opening day last season.
Sophomore Shae Schmidt had a team-high eight kills, while senior Melissa Cochran added seven kills and three blocks. Kaitlyn Micol also chipped in five kills for Barton, which had just 23 total kills in the match. Defensively, senior Corinna Morton matched her season-high with 11 digs.
Barton did not hold a lead in either of the first two sets. Lees-McRae enjoyed a slim one-point advantage in the opening frame when it went on a 7-0 run to surge in front 11-3. Trailing by six at 16-10, the Lady Bulldogs took advantage of several Bobcat errors to produce a 7-1 spurt and pull within two at 17-15. However, LMC received a kill from Banta and a service ace from Madison Martin to ease away to a five-point cushion.
In the second set, Lees-McRae rolled out to a quick 13-3 advantage behind the play of Liscio, who had three consecutive kills and four in a span of five Bobcat points. She finished the set with six kills and no errors. The Bobcats hit .367 in the set and was never threatened despite Barton producing its top hitting set of the match (.062) as well.
After trailing 4-1 early in the third frame, Barton used two kills and a block by Cochran to spark a 9-3 run that put the Lady Bulldogs into a lead for the first time in the match. The spurt was capped by a Schmidt kill that gave the Lady Bulldogs their largest advantage at 10-7, but Lees-McRae rolled off the next eight points – three on kills by Cotte – and never trailed again.
Lees-McRae hit .242 as a team in the contest and collected 46 digs, led by Cotte with 13.
Barton, which has not claimed a set in its last three losses, returns home to host Belmont Abbey College during Homecoming on Friday.
