Barton Outlasts Seward in Five

Jay Daubenberger

Monday night the Seward County Lady Saints volleyball team headed out to the northeast part of Kansas to take on conference foe Barton in a road matchup where once again SCCC took the match to five sets but unfortunately came up short as they fell to the Cougars 3-2.
Seward County started the match at a slow pace while Barton was able to gain an early 5-1 lead that was quickly cut down as Keala Wilson connected at the pin for a kill to cut the deficit to three. The Cougars however were able to keep their lead growing as they amassed an 11-6 lead over the Lady Saints who managed to retaliate and fight back into the first one point at a time. Rafaela DaSilva found Clara Duarte in the middle for a dynamic kill to cut the lead to 12-10 and a few points later Jasmyn Kistller knocked one off the blocker to bring SCCC back to within two as the Cougars still held a 20-18 lead. That lead didn’t last for long as DaSilva and Duarte raised the roof and stuffed home a block to tie the match at 22-22 to gain momentum for Seward County and the Lady Saints kept pushing, eventually taking the first behind a kill from Duarte off the slide to win the set 26-24.
The second started just like the first with SCCC falling behind Barton early on but unlike the first the Lady Saints were unable to reclaim the lead. The Cougars started off with a quick 9-6 lead before Barton was able to stretch that lead out to 15-9 before Seward County called timeout. The Lady Saints came out of their timeout with some fire as they fought back to within six and a powerhouse kill from Kistller brought it to 19-14. Neither team wanted the ball to hit the floor on their side of the net as rally after rally ensued and after what seemed like forever, Wilson was able to capitalize with a huge kill to close the gap to three at 23-20, but that was as close as the score would get from their as Barton took the second 25-21 to tie the match 1-1.
Both teams came out swinging in the third, matching each other point for point as Lajla Rasljanin slammed down the hammer on a monster kill from the middle of the net to tie the two teams up at 5. Eventually one team pulled away and that was the opposing Cougars who grew a 17-13 lead that the Lady Saints eventually were able to tie once again with a 4-0 run capitalized by back-to-back blocks to knot it up at 17-17. Once again, the two teams went blow for blow but just like the second set, Barton was able to pull away late and take the set 25-20 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Déjà vu was in the air during the fourth as once again Barton took the early lead over Seward County but a great find from DaSilva to Dora Filipovic at the left pin for the kill helped cut the Cougar lead to one and a few points later the Lady Saints claimed a 6-5 lead in the fourth. The score went back and forth for a few points until Seward County decided to host a block party in Great Bend as Kistller and Duarte combined to deny the Cougars and cut their lead to 14-13 and another Duarte block with DaSilva helped cap off a 9-0 run to take a 20-13 lead. A third block at the net from Duarte on the set brought the score to 23-16 before the Lady Saints forced a fifth set for the fifth time this season as they took the fourth set 25-20.
Roles were reversed at the start of the fifth as DaSilva dropped an absolute dime to Kistller at the pin to give Seward County a 3-0 lead early in the set. It was Barton this time who tied the set up at 7 before taking a two-point lead that DaSilva cut to one after a skip-set kill, but it was not enough as the Cougars took the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.
Seward County now fall to 10-7 on the 2023 season and drop to 2-2 in conference action in the KJCCC. They will return home to protect their unbeaten record inside of the Green House this season as they take on Dodge City in a 6:30 PM matchup in Liberal, Kansas.