Box Score by Benny Benton
BANNER ELK, N.C. – Barton College junior Zach McCalla collected nine of his team-high 17 kills in the final two sets as the Bulldogs rallied from a 2-1 deficit to down host Lees-McRae College in a five-set tiebreaker Saturday at Williams Gymnasium, 25-23, 18-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-8.
The win was Barton's fourth in its last five Conference Carolinas matches, and completed a season sweep of the Bobcats. Barton (9-14, 5-6) moved a half-game ahead of Lees-McRae (12-11, 4-6) and into fifth place in the league standings.
McCalla produced six kills without an error on just seven attempts in the fourth set to lead the Bulldogs back. Barton never trailed in the frame, enjoying a two- to three-point margin for much of the set. Barton hit an impressive .550 in the set.
The Bobcats took an early 2-0 lead in the fifth-set tiebreaker, but Barton won the next five points, the last one on a McCalla service ace. Lees-McRae won the next point, but kills by Tyler Malpass and Jonathan Novoa-Miralles pushed the Barton advantage to four, and the Bulldogs led by as many as three points the rest of the way.
Novoa-Miralles and Chad Stanback Jr. each had 11 kills, with Novoa-Miralles' coming on a .381 hitting night. McCalla hit .400 on the night, and Ladislav Lelkes hit .357 while collecting seven kills.
Federico Pagliara pushed up 43 assists, and Mike McMahon collected a match-high 12 digs to help in the victory.
Matt Harpenau produced a match-high 20 kills in a losing cause for the Bobcats, with Brady Markle chipping in 19 and Sam Sheers adding 10. Markle also hit .517 in the match.
Lees-McRae erased an early 5-1 lead in the first set, tying the match on two occasions, the last one at 17-all on a kill by Harpenau, who had seven in the opening frame alone. However, a kill by Novoa-Miralles and a block by Lelkes and McCalla put the Bulldogs back in front by two points, and Barton maintained that margin for much of the rest of the set.
The second set was the most competitive score-wise, as there were 12 ties and three lead changes. However, the score did not reflect the play in the set, as Barton hit just .136 in the frame while Lees-McRae hit .450. The Bulldogs led as late as 15-14, but the Bobcats closed out the frame on an 11-3 run. Harpenau had three block assists in the match, and all three came in the final five points of the second set.
Barton again struggled with its attack in the third set, hitting only a slightly better .167, while the Bobcats produced their best effort of the night, .458. As a result, Lees-McRae led for almost all of the set. Barton got within two at 16-14 on one of LMC's few errors in the frame, but the Bobcats went on a 4-0 run to pull away. Sheers had a kill and a block in the spurt.
However, the Bulldogs quickly turned the tide with their impressive fourth set. In addition to McCalla's six kills in the frame, Stanback had four and Lelkes added a pair. Just as important, Barton kept Harpenau in check, limiting him to just three kills in the final two sets after giving up 17 in the first three.
The contest was the eighth of nine straight road matches for the Bulldogs. Barton will make one more trip, this time to Hartsville, S.C., on Tuesday to face Coker College, before returning home for its last three matches of the regular season.
