No. 3 Seward County Reaches Third Straight Region VI Final Four

For the third time in as many seasons, the No. 3 Seward County volleyball team will be heading to the semi-finals of the Region VI Tournament.  It has become a normality under Head Coach Thais Baziquetto-Allen, who is also looking to lead her team to their third straight appearance in the Region VI Championship, splitting the previous two matches.

The Lady Saints (32-1, 16-0) needed to get past Pratt to reach the semi-finals this year, and they did just that, sweeping the Beavers 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-22).

The first set started with Pratt winning the first point, but that would be their only lead of the set, as the Lady Saints went on an 8-2 run to take a five-point lead.  The lead stayed at five until the score was 14-9.  Seward went on a 5-1 run to push the lead to nine.  During the run, Giovanna Tapigliani scored four of the five points for the Lady Saints.  The lead would reach eleven with a Viviane Viana kill, ending the set 25-14.

The Lady Saints looked determined to end the match quickly, opening the second set on a 7-0 run before the Beavers were forced to take a timeout.  Though Seward kept their seven-point lead mid-way through the set, Pratt’s points came solely from Lady Saints errors.  The Lady Saints were able to keep their errors under control the remainder of the set, extending their lead to ten with a Giovanna Kuntze kill.  The kill gave the Lady Saints the set two victory, 25-15.

The Beavers quickly turned momentum in their favor at the start of the third set, taking a 9-4 lead early on.  Seward County responded with a 6-0 run to the take the lead.  After a brief point from Pratt, the Lady Saints rattled off a 9-3 run.  Down six points, the Beavers wouldn’t go away easily, going on a 7-1 run to tie it at 20.  A timeout by Seward provided the spark needed for the Lady Saints to finish the set, as they went on to score five of the remaining seven points to win set three 25-22.

It wasn’t the best showing from the No.3 team in the country, as they only hit .222 on the night.  Tapigliani was the lone Lady Saint to hit double-digit kills, ending with 10 kill on 16 attempts.  Mariana Nascimento finished with 9, while hitting .438.  Giovanna Kuntze paced the match with 30 assists.

Nathiellen Machado (11) and Viviane Viana (10) both finished with double-digit digs. The Lady Saints finished with only two team blocks with Kuntze, Nascimento, and Brianna Bradford each recording one.

The Lady Saints will host the Colby Trojans at 2:00 p.m. in the semi-finals of the Region VI Tournament in the Greenhouse on Sunday. Following the match, Hutchinson and Butler will play, with the winners of the two matches facing off in the Region VI Championship at 6:00 p.m.