Reaching 500 kills, assists or digs is a notable mark in high school volleyball so it is a special thing for a player to reach the mark. It’s even more special when two players reach the same mark in a season and it’s a rare and very special thing when a pair of sisters reach the same mark in the same season. St. Elmo-Brownstown senior libero Mya Barker and junior outside hitter Peyton Barker did just that as both surpassed 500 career digs this season. Entering the Lady Eagles early season game against South Central on September 3, Mya sat at 494 digs and had 14 in the match to surpass the mark and went on to rack up 226 on the season to end her career with 699 digs. Just three and a half weeks later, Peyton entered the Lady Eagles September 29 match against Oblong with 490 career digs and had 13 in the match to surpass the mark and now sits at 585 career digs at the end of her junior year after tallying 228 digs this season. The pair are now the third set of sisters since 2000 who have been a “Lady Eagle” to surpass the 500 digs mark and rank in the top 10 for career digs joining current SEB Coach Jeni (Moore) Haslett and younger sister Gabi (Moore) Frailey as well as Chelsea Belden and younger sister Jordan Belden to reach the mark. They are also the first sisters duo do it and the sixth and seventh players overall to reach the mark since the official SEB/BSE co-op went into effect with the 2013 season. Mya now sits 8th on the career digs list with 699.
And on top of reaching 500 career digs, Peyton doubled up her accomplishments this year by surpassing 500 career kills on Wednesday in SEB’s final match of the season as she entered the game with 494 kills and had 10 in the match to reach 504 career kills. That puts her 8th on the all-time Lady Eagles list for career kills at the end of just her junior season.
