Box Score by Benny Benton
BRISTOL, Tenn. – The Barton College men's volleyball team set a single-game school record with 63 kills Friday night in claiming a four-set Conference Carolinas victory over host King University, 22-25, 31-29, 25-18, 25-23.
Freshman Chad Stanback Jr. set his own record with a season-high 17 kills, one of four players in double-figures for the Bulldogs (8-14, 4-6). Junior Ladislav Lelkes also posted a career high with 12 kills. Junior Zach McCalla contributed 15 kills and freshman Jonathan Novoa-Miralles chipped in 12 as the Bulldogs surpassed their previous team high of 60, which came earlier this year in a five-set match.
Barton's freshman setter, Federico Pagliara, tied his season-high with 53 assists, part of a double-double that also included 15 digs. Teammate Mike McMahon, the national leader in digs, added a match-high 18 to his total.
King (8-16, 3-8) was paced by 13 kills from Nick Serowski and 10 from Eddie Moushikhian.
To earn its fourth league win of the year, Barton first had to overcome a slow start. The Bulldogs hit just .077 in the opening set, recording the same number of errors, 11, that they would post the final two sets combined.
At the same time, the Tornado had its best hitting set of the night in the first, .172, and the result was that King never trailed in the opening frame. The Bulldogs did tie the match on two occasions, and closed from three points down to within one at 19-18 following a Stanback kill and King attack error.
However, King got kills from Mason Casner and Moushikhian sandwiched around a Chandler Wellman service ace as part of a 4-0 run to pull away.
The match turned for Barton during the epic second set in which there were 16 lead changes and eight ties.
Leading by a single point, the Bulldogs used consecutive kills and a solo block from McCalla to take their biggest lead of the set, 21-17. The Bulldogs led by three points at 22-19 following a kill by Stanback, but King took advantage of a Barton service error and an attack error to pull within one.
A kill by Novoa-Miralles gave Barton a two-point cushion at 23-21, but a kill by Serowski followed by consecutive blocks involving Casner – the first one with Serowski and the second one solo – not only put the Tornado into the lead, but on set point.
It would be the first of five set points for King, as the Bulldogs answered each point by the Tornado with one of their own to keep from going down 0-2 in the match.
At 28-all, Barton finally grabbed its first set point on kill by Stanback, but gave the advantage right back on one of its 20 service errors in the match. However, with the match now knotted at 29-all, Stanback responded again, first producing a kill to give the Bulldogs another set point, then teaming with Lelkes for a block on Serowski's attack to finally close out their longest set of the year, 31-29.
Taking advantage of its momentum, Barton rolled out to a quick 6-1 lead in set three. Novoa-Miralles had a kill and two blocks in the run and Tyler Malpass added a kill and a block.
The Tornado fought back to tie the set on two occasions, the second one at 10-all, but Barton scored four of the next five points to slowly pull away. During the spurt, Malpass had another kill and block. He led the team on the evening with seven block assists.
The fourth set was closely contested, with 12 ties and four lead changes. However, King had its worst hitting effort of the night, .033, while Barton had its best, .321, making it difficult for the Tornado to rally.
Those differences surfaced midway through the frame. King led 16-14 when Barton claimed seven straight points to take a comfortable five-point lead. The Tornado had attack errors on six of the seven, two of those forced by blocks from Stanback and Malpass. Stanback had a kill for the other point in the run, one of five kills for the Harrisburg, Pa., resident in the frame.
Still trailing by five at 23-18, the Tornado used a Barton attack error, a kill by Serowski and a block from Casner and Kiel Bell to close the gap to just two points at 23-21. Lelkes delivered a kill to put the Bulldogs on match point with a three-point cushion, but a triple block from Bell, Casner and Serowski, followed by a Moushikhian kill, trimmed the Bulldog advantage down to a single point at 24-23. However, Lelkes kept the Bulldogs from having to go to a tiebreaker when he produced a kill to close out the match.
Barton, now 3-1 in its last four league matches, hopes to make it four of the last five when it visits Lees-McRae College on Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest. The Bulldogs defeated the Bobcats, 3-2, in Wilson on Feb. 8.
