Jay Daubenberger
Liberal, KAN – Saturday night the Seward County Lady Saints volleyball team faced off with the Pratt Beavers inside of the Green House in a key conference matchup in the KJCCC and SCCC was able to pull out in front early and never look back as they cruised past the Beavers in a 3-0 sweep.
Pratt came out strong early on with the first two points off of errors by the Lady Saints and held a 9-5 lead 14 points into the action. Seward County found some traction from there as they went on a 5-1 run thanks to Lajla Rasljanin who had three kills in that spurt to tie up the set at 10-10 between the Lady Saints and the Beavers. From there it was all SCCC as they quickly gained a three-point advantage and kept it growing as an ace from Jasmyn Kistller stretched it out to a six-point lead with the Lady Saints up 18-12. A kill from the pin by Dora Filipovic off an assist from Rafaela DaSilva put the score at 22-16 and three straight errors by the Beavers ended the set with a 25-17 win to give Seward County a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Lady Saints started the second set off with a 4-0 run thanks to a kill from Keala Wilson and three errors by Pratt before the Beavers went on a 6-0 run of their own to go up 6-4 over SCCC. From their Seward County was chasing after the lead for most of the set with a skip-set kill from DaSilva helping them cut the deficit to one at 12-11 and an absolute hammer down the middle from Rasljanin to lock up the score at 19-19. It looked as though the Beavers were going to sneak out with the set as they developed a 23-20 lead but four straight kills from Filipovic put the Lady Saints back in front 24-23 and an ace from Rasljanin sealed the deal at 25-23 to put Seward County up 2-0 heading into the third set.
Filipovic started the third where she left off in the second, scoring the first kill of the set to start a 3-1 lead for the Lady Saints that only grew from there. Five straight kills by Wilson fueled the flames of an 8-0 run to put SCCC ahead 13-4. A kill down the middle by Marcelina Pyka increased the lead to ten at 20-10 and a kill off the slide by Clara Duarte helped wrap things up as the Lady Saints dominated the third 25-10 to complete a 3-0 sweep over the Pratt Beavers.
Wilson finished the match with a double-double of 11 kills and 10 digs on the afternoon while Filipovic added 9 kills on a .316 hit percentage. Pyka recorded a career high of 8 blocks while DaSilva added 26 assists and Winiffer Rodriguez led the team in digs with 12.
The Lady Saints now improve to 11-9 on the 2023 season with a conference record of 3-4. They will stay home for their next matchup as they take on the Butler Grizzlies on Wednesday in a 6:30 PM matchup inside of the Green House.
