Saints Slip Up Costly in Colby

Playing in one of the most hostile environments in the
Jayhawk Conference with 2nd place in the conference standings on the
line Monday night in Colby, the Seward County Lady Saints fell flat,
losing to the Lady Trojans in three games 25-17, 30-28, 25-20. Seward
was Colby from the start, falling behind 9-1 in game one before battling
back midway through, just to see Colby take over late to win 25-17. In
game two the Lady Saints trailed throughout until breaking through late
to have a chance to tie things up at 1 game apiece. They would fail on
two game point opportunities and Colby would come through with the 30-28
win. The Lady Saints held the upper hand in game three until late when
a dry spell did them in and cost them the match 25-20.

Things did not start as planned for Seward as they
allowed the Lady Trojans to get on a roll early and the crowd get
involved in the game as four attack errors and a pair of overpasses put
them in a 9-1 hole right off the bat. They would slowly creep back in
as Marina Dias got a kill on a dump and Aislyn Karney followed that up
with a kill of her own to make it 9-3. Then it was the Lady Saints
block to step up and Bailey McFerren would anchor that with back to back
blocks, combining with Karney on one and Aubree Young on the other to
make it 9-5. The Lady Saints would remain a handful back until the
midway point when a kill from Jasmine Bryant, a solo block from Courtney
Geesing and a combo block from Karney and Sarah Miller made it a two
point contest at 15-13. Seward got all the way to within one at 16-15
but back to back balls into the net would stop the Lady Saints momentum
and get Colby going in the right direction and the Lady Trojans would
dominate the end of the game, outscoring Seward 9-2 to close the game to
win 25-17 and take a 1-0 lead.

Seward would jump ahead 3-1 in game two with Dias at the
service line, looking to even things up at one. The Lady Trojans would
pull back even with the Lady Saints and would go ahead of Seward with a
kill to make it 9-8. From there Colby began to build on their lead and
by the midway point of the game, had things in control, up 14-9. Seward
would show signs of life as Geesing picked up three consecutive kills to
make it 19-17 and a Lady Trojan service error drew Seward to within one
at 20-19 moments later. The teams would trade points to 23-22 when the
Lady Saints served a ball into the net to give the Lady Trojans game
point. A Colby attack error would keep the Lady Saints afloat for the
time being and an ace from McFerren would knot things up at 24. A kill
from Geesing had Seward on the brink of evening things up as they took a
25-24 lead but a Colby tip again put the two even at 25. Geesing would
record her 9th kill of the game to give Seward another shot but once
again the Lady Trojans got the sideout to tie the game up. A
miscommunication on the next serve cost Seward a point and it was Colby
now that had the chance to clinch. The Lady Saints would get the ball
back with the game tied at 27 but another error would give the Lady
Trojans their second chance for game point. A kill from Young would
save Seward from falling in a 2-0 hole right then but after a Colby kill
and another problem on Seward's serve receive unit, the Lady Trojans
would seal the game 30-28 to take that 2-0 advantage.

On the ropes, the Lady Saints came out with a fury in
game three. They would take a 4-0 lead to start and would hold that
distance to 10-6. A pair of McFerren kills would extend their lead to
15-10 and a block moments later by the Seward freshman along with
Geesing would keep the margin five at 16-11. That's when Colby put
their foot down and started pushing back. They would get a pair of
kills on the outside to make it 16-13 and a Seward hitting error pulled
the Lady Trojans to within two at 16-14. The Lady Saints lead would
grow to three on a solo block from Geesing but back to back Seward
service errors would bring Colby to within one at 19-18. The Lady
Trojans would pull even for the first time in the game at 19-19 but a
McFerren kill would put the Lady Saints back up 20-19. From there on,
there was not a lot of positives to pull out for the gals in green.
Seward's 23rd hitting error of the night tied things up at 20 and a
Colby kill put the home team on top 21-20. Another errant attack made
it 22-20 and a shanked pass on a serve put Colby up 23-20. The Lady
Trojans took the next point to give themselves four shots at match point
but they would only need one, scoring on their next chance to win the
game 25-20 and take the match 3-0.

The stat sheet was not pretty for the Lady Saints at the
end of the night as they hit just .049 as a team and had just two of
their five top hitters finish the night with a positive hitting
percentage. Geesing was a lone bright spot for Seward, finishing with
13 kills and 11 digs and also chalking up a career high 4 blocks.
McFerren finished with 5 kills and 4 blocks while both Miller and Karney
also chipped in with 4 rejections. Dias and Christina Fisher shared the
team lead with 16 assists and Dias also tied Madison Winkelman for the
team lead with 14 digs.

The Lady Saints struggles at Colby continue and you
have to go back to the 2009 season since Seward even took a game from
the Lady Trojans. Seward falls to 19-8 and 8-3 in the Jayhawk West
Conference standings where they are now tied with the Lady Trojans for
2nd and 3rd place. Next up for the Lady Saints should be a chance to
gain some confidence when they travel to a struggling Garden City squad
on Wednesday before ramping it up again this weekend with four matches
against ranked competition in West Plains, Missouri.
Roy Allen