Box Score by Doug Page
PROVO, UTAH – The Barton College men's volleyball team showed a fight against Brigham Young University on Saturday night inside Smith Fieldhouse. The nationally-ranked No.5 Cougars would prevail in a nail-biter, 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 26-24) to complete the sweep for a second-straight night against the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs (0-5) looked like a completely different team on Saturday night as they took the floor inside the Smith Fieldhouse, holding several leads throughout the match and taking the Cougars to a 26-24 thriller in the third set. BYU (5-1) had a tough night in terms of attack errors, committing 19 in the match after tallying just five a night before.
Sophomore Angelos Mandilaris notched a team-high 10 kills for Barton and added two solo blocks in the match. Junior Vasilis Mandilaris delivered seven kills for BC, hitting .385 in the match, while junior Aleksa Brkovic added four kills, two aces, and three digs for the Bulldogs. Redshirt junior Oscar Fiorentino tallied 21 assists in the match for Barton to go along with a team-high four digs.
Gabi Garcia Fernandez paced the Cougars with 12 kills on 28 attempts but hit just .071 after committing 10 errors on the night. Andrew Lincoln recorded 10 kills for BYU and hit .353, while Storm Fa'agata-Tufuga tallied nine kills and three digs for the Cougars. Wil Stanley dished out a match-high 35 assists and recorded three aces to go along with a match-high eight digs for BYU.
Barton went toe-to-toe with the Cougars in the opening set as A. Mandilaris started the night with a kill to give the Bulldogs a quick 1-0 advantage. BC stayed within a point of the Cougars following a kill by V. Mandilaris that made it 7-6 BYU. A service error by Barton would start a 3-0 run by BYU, who upped its lead to 10-6 in the set. Trailing 12-7, BC used a 3-0 rally to cut the deficit to 12-10. Consecutive aces by Stanley would give BYU a 15-10 advantage and momentum in the set.
The Bulldogs would fall behind 20-16 in the set before gaining some momentum and clawing its way back to a 21-19 score. BYU took the opening set from Barton after a service error gave the Cougars a 25-22 win despite hitting just .286 as a team. BC would hit .444 in the set and recorded 11 kills on 18 attempts.
BYU took advantage of BC early in the second set, racing out to a 3-0 lead after consecutive kills from Price Jarman. Later in the set, Stanley delivered his third ace of the match to give BYU a 6-2 lead. The Bulldogs gathered themselves offensively and used a 3-0 rally to cut the deficit to 6-5. Barton would tie the score on five separate occasions in the set, including a kill from junior Nick Leary, who knotted the set at 11-11. BC answered a 2-0 run by the Cougars with a 3-0 rally of its own to take a 14-13 lead after an ace from Brkovic and kill from Leary.
The Mandilaris brothers gave BC a two-point edge over the Cougars following a timeout by the Bulldogs but BYU flexed its muscles, using a 4-0 run to take a two-point lead of its own at 18-16. Garcia Fernandez gave BYU a 23-21 lead late in the set and the momentum proved to be huge for the Cougars, who took the set 25-22 after Fa'agata-Tufuga delivered an ace to give his team a 2-0 lead in the match.
With the third set knotted 7-7 after a kill by junior Justice Lord, the Cougars rattled-off three straight points to take a 10-7 advantage on the scoreboard. The Bulldogs then showed arguably their best offensive pressure of the night, using a 4-0 run to gain an 11-10 lead and put BYU on its heels. Barton would later take a two-point edge in the set after back-to-back attack errors from Lincoln. Brkovic delivered a big kill for Barton halfway through the set as he gave the Bulldogs a 21-19 lead. The Cougars, after making a pair of substitutions, tallied consecutive points to even the score 21-21 and force the Bulldogs to call a timeout. BC won the point following the timeout to take the 22-21 lead but saw BYU deliver two kills from Fa'agata-Tufuga and Lincoln to take the 23-22 advantage.
Barton used its final timeout of the set looking to get the score knotted once again and would do so as Fa'agata-Tufuga put his serve into the net. BC denied the Cougars on their first potential match point as A. Mandilaris recorded a kill to make it 24-24. BYU made its final push in taking the set as Lincoln and Jarman teamed-up for a block to give the Cougars a 26-24 win and secure the 3-0 sweep against BC.
Despite hitting just .129 as a team in the third set, BYU fought off committing nine errors to earn its second straight win against BC. Service errors plagued both teams in the match as BC committed 20 to go along with three aces, while BYU committed 17 errors and tallied six aces. Barton finished the match hitting .288 as a team, while the Cougars hit .276 as a team. The Bulldogs also improved their play at the net, tallying 10.5 blocks as a team on Saturday after recording just 3.5 on Friday night. BYU had the opposite result as it tallied just six blocks as a team after recording 14.5 a night earlier.
Barton will host Erskine College on Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. to open Conference Carolinas play and host Emmanuel College the next day (Jan. 27) at 2 p.m. inside Wilson Gym.
