Box Score by Benny Benton
MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. – Barton College seniors Melissa Cochran and Catherine Barber helped the Lady Bulldogs rally all the way back from an 0-2 set deficit to defeat rival University of Mount Olive in five sets (17-25, 21-25, 25-14, 25-15, 15-11) before more a crowd of more than 750 at Kornegay Arena Wednesday night.
With the win, the Lady Bulldogs moved into a virtual tie for first place in the Conference Carolinas North Division. Barton, at 5-3 in the league and 7-10 overall, stands just percentage points behind King University and Lees-McRae College.
The victory was BC's fourth in its last five matches and Barton's second win over the Trojans in just over a week. The Lady Bulldogs only needed four sets in taking the meeting between the two sides in Wilson on Sept. 30.
Cochran, a middle blocker from Knightdale, N.C., produced a match-high 12 kills and added six blocks in Wednesday's win.
Barber, who transferred from Pitt Community College two years ago, had her best night in a Barton uniform. The Apex, N.C., resident tied her BC career high in kills with seven, and set new career highs for service aces (4), digs (12), blocks (3) and hitting percentage (.333).
The Lady Bulldogs also received five aces and 13 digs from Alex Ward, a team-high seven blocks from Kaitlyn Micol, 37 assists from Riley Bane and a team-high 14 digs from Amanda Grandy.
Mount Olive, now 5-13 overall and 2-6 in league play, was paced by Sarah Watkins, who had 10 kills, and Britni Johnson, who added eight. Libero Casey Fiechter produced a match-high 20 digs in the loss.
The Trojans used three service aces by Samantha Winfield in a span of four points, followed by consecutive kills from Dezirae Mackey, to make up most of a seven-point run that turned an 8-8 tie into an easy first-set victory.
Mount Olive used six more service aces in the second set to maintain a two- to three-point cushion throughout the frame. Trailing 23-19, Barton used consecutive kills by Shae Schmidt and Barber to close within two and force a timeout by the Trojans, but Watkins drilled back-to-back kills to close out the set and put the Lady Bulldogs in a deep 0-2 hole.
However, after giving up 10 aces in the first two sets, Barton allowed just three more the rest of the way, and the Mount Olive offensive attack that had produced hitting sets of .250 and .243 in the first two frames went negative (-.148, -.129) in the next two.
Two quick kills by Cochran, three attack errors by the Trojans and a Cochran ace helped Barton to a fast 9-3 start in set three from which UMO never recovered.
Set four opened with a kill by Barber, who had five of her seven spikes in the final three frames as Barton rallied. She then joined with Cochran on a block, fueling a 6-1 start for the Lady Bulldogs. Mount Olive pulled back within one at 14-13 on a Montgomery Register ace, but Barton received a kill and block each from Cochran and Barber as part of a 5-0 run. A kill by Jillian Sherman claimed the final point for the Lady Bulldogs, sending the match to the fifth-set tiebreaker.
Cochran set the tone for the final fame with a kill, and a ball-handling error by the Trojans put Barton up 2-0. The Lady Bulldogs still enjoyed that margin at 7-5 when Barton went on a 5-0 run that included a block by Micol and Courtney Wiseman, an ace by Bane and a kill by Grandy. Mount Olive got as close as 14-11 before a Micol kill finished off the match for the Lady Bulldogs.
Barton hit a sizzling .417 in the decisive fifth set and averaged .198 for the night, its third-best percentage of the season.
Like Mount Olive, the Lady Bulldogs also had 13 aces. Barton had nearly twice as many blocks (13.5 team blocks to 7) as the Trojans, which came into the contest ranked second in the league in the category.
The Lady Bulldogs are 3-0 in five-set matches this season. However, BC had not won a five-set match in which it trailed 0-2 since rallying against Coker College on Nov. 2, 2011.
Barton will return to action on Tuesday, Oct. 14, when it visits Florence, S.C., for a non-conference battle with Francis Marion University.
