Butler volleyball sweeps Garden City in home conference match

Butler volleyball improved to 2-1 in Jayhawk Conference play with a three-set sweep over Garden City on Monday at the Power Plant.

The Grizzlies (7-4 overall, 2-1 conference) also picked up their second straight home victory in the 25-21, 25-23, 28-26 win over the Broncbusters (2-9, 0-3).

Butler jumped out quickly in the opening set with a 7-0 lead, but Garden would battle back to take a brief 13-12 advantage. However, a Grizzly 4-0 run put the hosts back in front and Aliyah Bernard would eventually close out the first set with a kill.

In the second set, Butler trailed by as many as five points on three separate occasions. Down 21-19, Bernard had three straight points with two kills and a block to give the Grizzlies the lead for good in the set.

Butler needed four match points for the sweep, but freshman hitter Claudia Hess finally ended the match with a kill for the 28-26 victory in the final set.

Bernard led the Grizzlies with 13 kills while hitting .667 and added four digs and a block. Jordyn Allen also had a solid game at the net with nine kills and hit .538. Abby Goodrum had 13 digs and three aces, while Nicole Klusener had a team-high 14 digs and added eight kills. Andie Nibarger finished with 22 assists, 10 digs and two aces. Butler also had 20 assists and seven digs from Alex Stiles.

On the evening, Butler finished with 49 kills, four blocks and hit. 242 as a team. The Grizzlies had 47 assists, 64 digs and six aces in the sweep over Garden City.

Next up for Butler will be a road conference match at Hutchinson (7-4 overall, 3-0 conference) on Wednesday. The contest gets underway at the Hutchinson Sports Arena at 6:30 p.m.