Hutch Stymies Seward

he one phase of the Seward County Lady Saints game which had been so consistent all season long, their offense, went quiet Wednesday night in Hutchinson and the scoreboard showed that as Seward was beaten 3-1 by their Jayhawk West rival Blue Dragons to drop their third straight match and fall to 10-8 overall on the season.

Seward came out guns a blazing against the rival Blue Dragons, using strong play at the net to take an early 8-3 lead in the first set in the Sports Arena. The Lady Saints continued to lead through the middle of the set as Hutchinson struggled to find the court with their serves. A kill by Megan Sharratt in the middle put Seward up 16-10 and Seward extended their lead to 20-13 later in the set. Hutchinson made a run and cut the Lady Saints lead to just three at 22-19 and it remained a three point spread to 23-20 after the teams traded points. The Dragons seventh service error of the set gave Seward set point and three points later, Hutch’s eighth service blunder sealed the deal for the Lady Saints 25-22 to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The Lady Saints had 10 kills and just 2 errors offensively in the first set, good for a .235 hitting percentage as a team.

The two teams played even through the first 12 points of the second set as they were tied at 6 and remained deadlocked at 9-9 six points later. A Seward service error broke the tie and it sent the Lady Saints on a slide that quickly saw them reeling, down 17-12. Hutch continued to pour it on, taking their largest lead of the set at 20-12 after two more Lady Saint errors and it was all Dragons from there as they closed out Seward 25-15 in the second to even the match at 1-1. Seward’s offensive numbers were drastically different in the second than they were in the first as the Lady Saints hit -.161 as a team, racking up 10 errors with just 5 total kills in the period.

Seward looked like they had snapped out of it as they busted out of the gates scoring the first five points of the third set to take a quick 5-0 lead. Their lead didn’t last long though as the Dragons crept back into it and knotted the score at 7 before scoring two more points to take a 9-7 lead. The Lady Saints scored three of the next four points to tie the score at 10, but an attack error by Seward and a block by Hutch spurred a 4-0 run by the Dragons to once again put Hutchinson on top 14-10. Seward’s deficit quickly grew to 17-11 after two more Lady Saint hitting errors and after the Dragons stretched the lead to 20-13, three straight Seward errors all but did them in as Hutch finished the Lady Saints off 25-15 once again to go up 2-1 in the match. Seward’s offense was once again abysmal in the set as they finished the period with 11 hitting errors and just 6 kills to finish with a -.125 hitting percentage, hitting negative as a team for the second straight set.

Once again, the Lady Saints played even with the Dragons early in the set, but struggled through the middle in the fourth. The score was tied at 6 in the fourth when a pair of Seward reception errors helped the Dragons take a 10-7 lead in the set. A Dragon service error gave the Lady Saints the ball back, but they wouldn’t keep it for long as an attack error gave it right back to Hutch and the Dragons rolled off the next five points to open up a 16-8 lead in the fourth. Seward drew back to within five later in the set on a kill from Angelina Minor, but that was as close as they would get as Hutch used a strong finish, along with more Lady Saint errors to close out the match with a 25-18 win the fourth to take the match 3-1.

Seward hit negative as a team in the match, registering just 28 kills, a season low, to go along with 29 errors, a season high, to finish with a -.007 hitting percentage. Carolina Gasparini led Seward with 9 kills in the match, but she also recorded 8 errors while Thayna Silva came off of a Jayhawk West Player of the Week award with 6 kills and 9 errors against the Dragons. Kari Anderson led Seward with 20 digs in the loss while Gasparini had 13 and setter Nacole Miller registered a double-double with 15 assists and 10 digs for the Lady Saints. Seward had just 4 blocks as a team in the defeat, lowering their season total to just 1.24 per set which ranks 8th out of 9 teams in the Jayhawk West and 85th of 92 reporting teams nationally.

SEWARD COUNTY/HUTCHINSON BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wvball/2014-15/boxscores/20140917_iqug.xml>

The Lady Saints fall to 10-8 overall on the year with their third straight loss and Seward’s Jayhawk West record drops to 3-2 where they now sit in 4th place after five conference matches. Hutchinson improves to 7-5 overall and remains unbeaten in conference action at 4-0.

Seward won’t have long to regroup as they hit the road on Thursday for the long trip to the Wyo-Braska Shootout in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and Torrington, Wyoming where they will take on #8 Western Wyoming and 15-3 Laramie County on Friday before battling Central and Eastern Wyoming on Saturday.