Box Score by Doug Page
PROVO, UTAH – The Barton College men's volleyball team faced a well-prepared Brigham Young University squad on Friday night inside Smith Fieldhouse as the nationally-ranked No.5 Cougars prevailed 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-17) to complete the sweep.
The Bulldogs (0-4) had a tough time beating block-attempts by BYU as the Cougars tallied 14.5 on the night, compared to 3.5 for BC. BYU (4-1) hit .688 as a team in the first set and wouldn't look back, hitting over .400 in each of the next two sets.
Junior Aleksa Brkovic paced the Bulldogs with eight kills and one ace while tallying 9.5 of Barton's 26.5 points in the match. Sophomore Angelos Mandilaris recorded four kills on the night for Barton, while junior Vasilis Mandilaris tallied three kills to go along with three digs for the Bulldogs. Redshirt junior Oscar Fiorentino recorded 16 assists for the Bulldogs to go along with three kills, one ace, and four digs.
Storm Fa'agata-Tufug's match-high 12 kills led the Cougars offensively. Fa'agata-Tufug also contributed three aces and three digs, while Gabi Garcia Fernandez tallied seven kills, three aces, and six block assists for BYU. Price Jarman guided the Cougars with eight block assists, while Leo Durkin tallied 31 assists and seven digs for BYU.
The Bulldogs would give BYU a tough go of it in the third set as the Cougars looked to complete the sweep against BC. Barton rallied back from an early 6-3 deficit following an ace by BYU's Andrew Lincoln as BC used a 4-0 to take a 7-6 advantage in the set. The run featured a kill by A. Mandilaris as well as an ace from Brkovic. The Cougars would forgo a timeout and use a 2-0 rally to regain the lead (8-7).
Junior Nick Leary tallied one of his two kills on the night to knot the score 8-8 for BC before BYU tallied three-consecutive points to take an 11-8 lead and the momentum back in the set. A service error allowed BC to pull within two points of the Cougars (12-10) but another 3-0 rally would give BYU a five-point cushion (15-10). Tanner Skabelund recorded the final kill of the night for BYU as he gave the Cougars a 25-17 victory in the set and his team a 3-0 sweep of the match.
Despite committing 16 service errors on the night, BYU tallied 10 aces in the match. Barton recorded eight kills as a team in the second set, the same as BYU but committed nine attack errors, while the Cougars committed only one. BC finished the match 37-for-73 in sideouts (50 percent), while BYU was 39-for-46 (84 percent).
Barton will face the Cougars again on Saturday night inside Smith Fieldhouse as first-serve is scheduled for 10 p.m. Links for live stats along with video are available at www.bartonbulldogs.com.
