Box Score by Benny Benton
WILSON, N.C. – Barton College rallied from a six-point fourth-set deficit to win the frame and force a fifth set against University of Mount Olive Wednesday night, but the Trojans jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker and never trailed in finishing off a 3-2 victory in Wilson Gym.
The Bulldogs closed to within a point at 9-8 in the fifth set on a kill by Chad Stanback Jr., but a BC service error, a kill by Mount Olive freshman Kian Hollevoet and a block by Mike Mann put the Trojans back in control at 11-7 on their way to finishing off the 27-29, 25-18, 29-27, 18-25, 15-12 win.
The victory helped Mount Olive improve to 12-9 overall and 10-6 in league play. Barton fell to 11-16 overall and 9-8 in conference. The setback was a costly one for the Bulldogs, who slipped from a tie for fourth place in the league down to sixth.
UMO played the decisive set without an error, hitting .500 on eight kills in 16 attempts. Mount Olive sophomore Andrew Sydow, who ranks No. 6 nationally in attack percentage, went the whole night without an error, hitting an incredible .842 while producing 16 kills in 19 attempts. Mann also went error-free with six kills in 10 attempts (.600).
The Trojans were led by Bret Rutledge, who had 18 kills, 11 digs and seven block assists, while Peyton Schirman chipped in 10 kills.
Pierre Tang-Taye led all players with 22 kills for Barton, and missed a double-double by one dig after collecting nine. Stanback chipped in 18 kills and a school-record six service aces, and Brennan O'Connor contributed 11 kills. Tanner Medina delivered eight kills without an error (.615 hitting percentage) and eight blocks, while Ben Kasun added 57 assists and five aces.
The match featured two of the top three digs leaders in the nation, UMO's Josh Donahue and Barton's Mike McMahon, and both lived up to their lofty rankings. Donahue produced 26 digs and McMahon collected a school-record 28.
Stanback helped Barton force a fifth set by leading the big fourth-set rally. The sophomore from Harrisburg, Pa., delivered five service aces during a seven-point possession that moved the Bulldogs from an 11-5 deficit into the lead. Barton had seven total aces in the frame as it pulled away to a seven-point win in the set.
Although Mount Olive was the team ranked in the top 10 nationally in service aces, it was the Bulldogs who had 13 on the night while the Trojans managed just two. UMO made up for that deficit by producing twice as many team blocks (17.0 to 8.5).
A key turning point in the match came near the end of the third set, when Barton stood just one point from a 2-1 lead after taking a 24-22 advantage on an O'Connor kill. However, a kill and a block assist by Schirman helped Mount Olive tie the set, and a Barton attack error put UMO on set point instead. Three times the Bulldogs overcame a set point against them, but at 27-all Mount Olive used a kill by Hollevoet and a BC attack error to claim the critical set and the 2-1 advantage.
Barton will host a non-conference tri-match in its final home appearance of the regular season. The Bulldogs will play University of Charleston (W.V.) at 2 p.m. and Coker College at 6 p.m. In-between, Charleston and Coker will face off at 4 p.m.
