Box Score by Benny Benton
LEBANON, Ill. – Barton College junior Zach McCalla delivered 19 kills and freshman Jonathan Novoa-Miralles added 12 as the Bulldogs downed host McKendree University in straight sets (25-23, 25-18, 27-25) Saturday at the McKendree Crossover Tournament.
The Bulldogs (7-13) produced a season-high .327 attack percentage, led by McCalla, who produced his best hitting performance of the year with a .452 mark. Chad Stanback Jr. also hit .400 while collecting seven kills and Novoa-Miralles posted a percentage of .375.
Barton also matched a season-high with six service aces in the match, led by freshman Federico Pagliara, who had four. Pagliara also pushed up 40 assists.
McKendree, now 8-18 in its inaugural season of men's volleyball, was paced by 10 kills from Eric Abrolat.
The Bearcats led 18-16 in the opening set when Barton went on a 6-0 run that included three of Pagliara's aces. McKendree closed to within a single point at 24-23 on a kill by Dustin Borenstein, but Novoa-Miralles finished off the set for the Bulldogs with a spike.
Novoa-Miralles dominated the opening frame, producing seven kills without an error in nine attempts.
Barton trailed just once in the second set, that coming at 6-5 following a McKendree block by Abrolat and Jack MacLean.
Tied at 11-all, the Bulldogs pulled away with a 7-1 spurt that was helped by five attack errors from the Bearcats.
McKendree, which had hit .435 in the opening set, produced just a .053 attack percentage in the second frame.
When McKendree was keeping the ball in play, McCalla was finishing the points off, collecting a staggering nine kills in that set alone.
Both sides had chances to win a close third set that featured 18 ties and nine lead changes.
Barton reached match point at 24-23 on a McCalla kill, but a spike by Abrolet and a block by Wyatt Patterson and MacLean put McKendree on set point, 25-24. A kill by McCalla, his sixth of the set, tied the match again at 25-all, and an attack error by the Bearcats put the Bulldogs on match point again. This time, Barton finished off the match on a kill by Stanback.
The loss snapped a streak of four straight losses by Barton suffered on a pair of long road trips to Indiana and Illinois. The Bulldogs will continue to be road warriors for four more matches, but the next contest will be a short trip as Barton will square off against Princeton University in a neutral-court match in Mount Olive on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
