Conqs drop Jayhawk match to Barton Cty.

The Dodge City Community College Conquistador volleyball team dropped another Jayhawk Conference match Thursday at home to the Barton County CC Cougars. The scores were 22-25, 22-25 and 14-25.
    Each match is becoming more and more important in determining the seeding of the Jayhawk tournament at the end of the regular season, and Thursday's loss puts the Conqs below .500 in Jayhawk play with a 4-5 mark. The Conqs are now 20-16 on the season.
    "Losing to them tonight really opens up the door for them to come and take that spot away from us," said Conq volleyball coach Shaun Pohlman.
    The Cougars are 3-6 in Jayhawk play after Thursday's three-set victory.
    Both teams still have one remaining match with each of the top three teams in the Jayhawk's Western Division: Hutchinson, Seward County and Pratt. Dodge has dropped at least one match to each of those teams this season.
    The latest loss stemmed from some of the same mistakes the team made Tuesday in its four-set win against Garden City. Dodge's service lacked accuracy again, and the Barton County defense was able to dig out of Dodge City's attacks.
    "It's unfortunate with the packed house that we played in front of tonight," Pohlman said. "For that, it's disappointing that we didn't play very well."
    But the Cougar win didn’t just come from an off night for the Conqs. Pohlman said that each member of the Barton County team looked considerably better than they did during the teams' previous encounter in Great Bend.
    "They’ve been playing a lot of matches against nationally ranked opponents. They went winless at the Seward invite last weekend," Pohlman said. "But playing those tough teams in turn makes them a tougher team.
    "That was the freshman in us," he added. "It's the youth in us. We had a lot of big players for us not playing big."
    The Conqs will hit the hardwood again Tuesday at home, when they host the Hutch CC Blue Dragons on sophomore night. The Blue Dragons spanked the Conqs in Hutch when the two squads met earlier this season.
    "We were psyched out by their big-gym atmosphere," Pohlman said of the prior meeting. "If we can settle down and play our game, we'll be OK. We didn't see that out of [our players] tonight."