Tale of Two Games for Seward Volleyball

Going into this weekend’s Pizza Hut Classic in Sterling, Colorado, the Seward County Lady Saints had been inconsistent on the season if anything. Those inconsistencies continued on Friday at the tournament, but not exactly how you would have guessed on paper. In their first match of the day, they took on a struggling Northeastern squad and were blown away by the Lady Plainsmen on their home floor in three sets. In their second match of the day, they took on a red hot, 14-1 Laramie County team and did some blowing away of their own, taking down the Golden Eagles in a three set sweep to move to 10-5 overall on the 2014 season.

After a long trip to the Eastern Plains of Colorado, the Lady Saints struggled to get things going early on as a they took on the host Northeastern Lady Plainsmen. The Lady Saints had four hitting errors before recording their first kill of the set and quickly found themselves behind 16-7 in the first set. Seward slowly worked their way back into the set, closing the Northeastern lead to five at one point, but the early deficit was too much to overcome in the first as the Lady Plainsmen took the first 25-18.

The second set was a nip and tuck battle early on, with neither team grabbing more than a two point lead until they worked themselves into a deadlock, tied at 12 at the midway point of the set. The Lady Saints struggled with their pass and it cost them dearly as Northeastern jumped ahead by four, 19-15 later in the period. Seward couldn’t get on a roll late and they found themselves down by a sizable margin late before Northeastern finally put them away 25-19 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

More Seward miscues put the Lady Saints in another hole in the third as they fell behind 8-5 as they committed six errors in the first part of the third set. The Lady Saints got it back to a two point set at 11-9, but it was all Northeastern from there as the Lady Plainsmen outscored Seward 14-9 to close out the third to win 25-18 and sweep the match 3-0.

Seward hit just .105 as a team in the defeat, getting 27 kills, but 15 errors in the affair. Carolina Gasparini and Thayna Silva led the Lady Saints with 8 kills each while Alex Wood added 6 kills in the loss. The rest of the Seward lineup combined had just 5 kills. Kristen Anderson dished out 24 of Seward’s 27 assists in the match and both Silva and Kari Anderson topped the 20 dig mark for the Lady Saints. Seward had just 1 block as a team in the loss.

SEWARD COUNTY/NORTHEASTERN BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wvball/2014-15/boxscores/20140912_wj6e.xml>

Things didn’t get any easier for the Lady Saints in their second match of the night as they squared off against a 14-1 Laramie County team coming off of their first loss of the 2014 season. But, unlike the match against Northeastern, the Lady Saints came ready to play in this one. Seward banged home eight kills before their first error in the opening set, staking themselves to a 10-7 lead to begin things. Seward held a three point lead to 19-16, but Laramie came back to knot the set at 20 to make it a new game late in the set. The teams traded points to 22-22 before an ace from Taryn Bedore put the Lady Saints on top by one. An error by the Golden Eagles gave Seward set point but they couldn’t close and they found themselves tied at 24 in the blink of an eye. A kill from Silva gave them another shot at the set and a Megan Sharratt kill in the middle gave them a fourth, but they still couldn’t put Laramie away. Finally after a Laramie hitting error gave them their fifth set point in the first, the Lady Saints finished things in style, getting a triple block in the middle to wrap up the set with a 28-26 win to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The Lady Saints finished the set with a season high 17 kills on 52 swings, good for a .173 hitting percentage in the set.

The first 14 points of the second set didn’t decide anything as the two were tied at 7. Seward ran off five straight after that, highlighted by a pair of Sharratt kills and another solo block from the Lady Saints rookie middle. They continued to push, this time getting contributions from Alex Wood with a pair of kills to stretch their lead to 17-11. Seward looked like they were smooth sailing, blowing the lead open to 22-12, but Laramie came roaring back, with help from the Lady Saints, to close to within two points late after a 6-0 run. With the score 24-22, the Lady Saints went to Gasparini and the sophomore hitter rewarded them with a kill to close out the set 25-22 and give the Lady Saints a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Lady Saints scored the first two points of the third set to take a 2-0 lead, but six straight errors after that put them in an early 6-2 hole. Seward slowly worked their way back into the set and trailed by just one, 12-11 midway through the set and they then tied things at 14 moments later after a Laramie error. An ace from Gasparini put Seward up one and the Lady Saints remained up by one when Silva got back to back kills to make it a 20-17 score. After the Eagles climbed back to within two, back to back Lady Saint reception errors allowed Laramie to tie the score and the two were in another late set tussle, this time with the score tied at 23. A kill by Gasparini put Seward on the brink of a win and the Lady Saints went right back to her on match point and she finished with a bang, drilling a kill down the line to give Seward a 25-23 win to sweep the match 3-0.

Gasparini and Sharratt were electric for Seward in the win, combining for 22 kills and just 1 error as Gasparini was errorless on 27 attempts with 12 kills and Sharratt had just 1 error on 15 swings to go along with her 10 kills. Silva finished with a team high 13 kills, but did have 10 attack errors in the victory. Taryn Bedore had a team high 21 assists in the win and Nacole Miller added 15 for the gals in green. Kari Anderson led Seward with 18 digs while Silva and Gasparini each finished off double-doubles with 17 and 14 digs respectfully.

SEWARD COUNTY/LARAMIE COUNTY BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wvball/2014-15/boxscores/20140912_cy2k.xml>

The Lady Saints move to 10-5 overall on the season with the split and will continue play in the tournament on Saturday morning as they take on Casper and Northwest Wyoming to wrap up the trip.