Seward Rallies to Conquer Trojans

Jay Daubenberger

Liberal, KAN. – The Seward County Lady Saints returned to the Green House on Wednesday to open conference action against the Colby Trojans where the match went the distance to five sets and the Lady Saints were able to take the match 3-2 over Colby to increase their win streak over the Trojans to eighteen straight victories for SCCC.
It was good for the Lady Saints early on in set one as they took an early lead over the Trojans. Rafaela DaSilva connected with Clara Duarte on the slide for a huge kill to put Seward County up 13-11 and a few points later Dora Filipovic scored on back-to-back kills to increase the lead to 19-14. Just when it looked as though the Trojans were sneaking back into the set, Duarte connected on a kill from the pin to give the Lady Saints a 22-18 lead and Keala Wilson wrapped up set one with a kill down the line to win the set 25-20 to go up 1-0 over Colby.
Set two was the complete opposite for Seward County as they completely froze against the Trojans in the second. Colby took an early 8-7 lead against the Lady Saints and after a 10-1 run for the Trojans increased their lead to 18-8 it sealed Seward County’s fate as they were only able to score one kill on the set and the Trojans took the set 25-10 to tie the match 1-1.
The Lady Saints were able to bounce back early in the third behind Lajla Rasljanin who caught fire and after a huge kill to put SCCC up 8-3 it looked to be all Seward County as they managed to maintain their five-point lead through most of the match. Filipovic connected on her eighth kill of the match to put the score 18-13 in favor of the Lady Saints, and it looked as though Seward County was ready to take the set until the Trojans came marching back to tie the set at 24-24 and ended up stealing the third in extra points 26-24 to go up 2-1 in the match.
Roles were reversed in the fourth as Colby took a quick 10-4 lead over the Lady Saints until Wilson was able knock a kill down the middle to cut the deficit to five and SCCC slowly made their way back, eventually tying it up 24-24 off another absolute hammer from Wilson and just as Colby had done in the previous set, took the fourth in extra points 26-24 to tie It up 2-2 heading into the fifth and final set.
Set five started with a quick 5-2 lead for the Trojans but once again Wilson helped the Lady Saints stay in the game with back-to-back kills to help cut Colby’s lead to one. A roof raiser from Rasljanin and DaSilva tied the match at 6-6 and that was when Seward County took absolute control as a kill from Filipovic sparked an 8-0 run that led the way to a 15-7 finish to put the Lady Saints on top 3-2 over Colby to earn their first conference win of the 2023 season.
Wilson led the charge for Seward County with 15 kills in the match with Filipovic right behind her with 13 kills of her own to go with 19 digs through all five sets. Rafaela DaSilva dished out 28 assists and recorded 18 digs while Rasljanin sent back a career high 11 blocks. Winiffer Rodriguez recorded 35 digs to tie the five-set dig record, securing her spot in the SCCC record books.
Seward County improves to 7-3 on the 2023 season with a 1-0 start to conference action and stretch their win streak to four. They will be back on the road this Saturday at Hutchinson before returning back to The Green House for a home matchup against Garden City.