Saints Split on Saturday in Torrington, Wyoming

The Seward County Lady Saints will have a long ride home Saturday night from Torrington, Wyoming after dropping a three set match to Central Wyoming to wrap up their trip to the Wyo-Braska Shootout.

The opening play of the game might have been a precursor for what was to come for the Lady Saints as Seward botched the first serve of the match for a reception error to give Central Wyoming the lead and they were forced to play catch-up for the rest of the set. Central took a 4-1 lead to start things off and extended their lead to 16-8 in the middle of the set after four straight Seward County errors. The Lady Saints never put up much of a fight in the set as they failed to get closer than six points away from the Lady Rustlers as Central took the first set 25-17.

Seward fell behind once again in the second set 4-1, but this time they battled back to knot the score at 10 and remained neck and neck with the Rustlers through the middle of the set. Neither team held more than a one point lead from the time the score was 8-6 Central Wyoming to the point where the Lady Rustlers took a 20-18 lead on the Lady Saints after a Seward attack error. Seward came back though, scoring three straight points on kills from Lindsey Schwab, Alex Wood, and Megan Sharratt to take a 21-20 lead and another kill from Wood later on put the Lady Saints up 23-21. Central Wyoming scored the next two points to tie the score at 23, but a kill from Thayna Silva gave the Lady Saints a chance to win the set with the score 24-23. Seward couldn’t close and Central scored the next two points to get their chance at taking the set, but a block from Kristen Anderson and Sharratt tied the score back up at 25. The Rustlers got a quick sideout to make it 26-25 and finished the Lady Saints off at 27-25 to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Seward had 17 kills and just 5 errors, hitting .255 in the set, but were still unable to overcome the Rustlers attack.

With their backs to the wall, the Lady Saints got off to a much better start in the third, getting kills on the first three points of the set to take an early 3-0 lead on Central. The Rustlers however, came back to draw even with the Lady Saints at 8-8 and Central Wyoming scored the next three points to take an 11-8 lead midway through the set. It remained a three point spread in favor of Central to 17-14 when the Lady Saints got three straight kills from Sharratt in the middle to tie the score at 17. A huge service error stopped the Lady Saints momentum and pushed big mo back on the side of the Rutlers and Central Wyoming took advantage. Central scored the next six points after the miscue and after being tied at 17 one moment, the Lady Saints found themselves down 24-17 in the blink of an eye. Seward fought off three match points, but in the end, the seven point deficit was too much to overcome as Central got a kill to put the nail in the coffin to beat the Lady Saints 25-20 and win the match in a sweep.

The Lady Saints were swept despite a final stat sheet that certainly didn’t look like a 3-0 Central Wyoming win. Seward’s offense was as dispersed as it has been all season as five different players recorded 6 or more kills in the match including Silva who had 9 to lead the way and Wood who was second on the team with 8. Nacole Miller dished out 24 assists for Seward and Kari Anderson led the Lady Saints with 21 digs in the loss. Gasparini finished with 17 digs for the Lady Saints in the match and also chipped in 6 kills on the offensive end. The Lady Saints had another decent showing in the blocking department, finishing with 8 blocks as a team, getting a team high 6 from Sharratt which included 2 solo rejections.

The Lady Saints finish the weekend 2-2 in the tournament and move to 12-10 overall on the season. Central Wyoming improves to 15-5 with the victory over Seward.

Seward will have some time to fix their imperfections at practice this week as they will be off Wednesday for their first half bye before hosting the 2014 Ozfest Invitational in the Greenhouse next Friday and Saturday.

SEWARD COUNTY/CENTRAL WYOMING BOX SCORE

One area of concern for Seward County Head Coach Bert Luallen this season has been his team’s inability to put up a consistent block against their opponents. Saturday afternoon that certainly wasn’t a problem as the Lady Saints racked up a season high 12 blocks as a team as they swept away homestanding Eastern Wyoming in three sets on day two of the 2014 Wyo-Braska Shootout.

The Lady Saints got things going early on against the Lancers, jumping out to a big early lead on Eastern, taking a 5-1 advantage to begin the first set and then extending the gap all the way to 12-2 at the midway point. Seward continued to push, holding a double digit lead to 19-9 on a kill from Carolina Gasparini. Back to back Seward errors allowed Eastern to within eight and after a Lady Saint block, two more errors let the Lancers creep back in to within five at 21-16. A kill from Thayna Silva pushed the Seward lead to six once again, but Eastern rolled off the next four points to all of a sudden make it a game at 22-20. It remained a two point game to 24-22 and Eastern Wyoming looked to cut it to a one point Lady Saint advantage, but Megan Sharratt would have none of that, getting a solo block to end the set and give the gals in green a 25-22 first set win.

Seward continued their strong blocking to begin the second set, but a rash of Lady Saint errors allowed Eastern Wyoming to hang around and the score was tied after 20 points at 10-10. After trading points, the score was tied at 11 when the Lady Saints went cold and Eastern Wyoming took advantage, going on a 7-2 run to take a 18-13 lead in the set. The Lady Saints deficit remained at five to 21-16 when they finally got their offense going. Kills from Sharratt and Silva jump started the offense and a block from the pair, followed by two more kills from the duo drew Seward even at 22-22. After the Lancers picked up a sideout, a service error by Eastern tied the score at 23. A kill from Gasparini gave Seward set point, but a Lady Saint service error kept that from happening for the time being. Eastern finished the set with back to back attack errors, more less handing the Lady Saints the set 26-24 to take a 2-0 lead.

The poor ending by the Lancers seemed to have taken the wind out of their sails as the Lady Saints came at Eastern Wyoming like gangbusters in the third set, getting four kills and a solo block to take a 6-0 lead to begin the set. Eastern cut the Seward lead to four a short time later, but three straight kills from Silva put the Lady Saints back up comfortably 11-4. Seward continued to press forward, getting a kill on an overpass from Carolina Freitas to make it a 16-6 score and a block from Sharratt and Wood later in the set kept the Lady Saints lead double digits at 21-11. Wood picked up a solo block to give Seward set point and Sharratt, who has become the Lady Saints closer of late, finished off her fourth set in two days with a kill to give the gals in green a 25-12 win.

After averaging well over 20 attack errors per match in their past five contests, the Lady Saints had just 13 in the win over Eastern Wyoming. The Lady Saints hit .206 as a group, led by Silva who posted a 13 kill, 13 dig, double-double. Gasparini was second on the team with 7 kills and led Seward with 17 digs while Sharratt had 6 kills without an error and also had 4 blocks for the Lady Saints. The Lady Saints recorded a season high 12 blocks as a team in the victory including a career high 7 total blocks for freshman Alex Wood and 5 for fellow rookie Lindsey Schwab.

SEWARD COUNTY/EASTERN WYOMING BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wvball/2014-15/boxscores/20140920_joff.xml>