Jay Daubenberger
After falling on the wrong end of two sweeps in their past two games last week, the Seward County Lady Saints volleyball team bounced back strong to create a sweep in their favor against conference rival Hutchinson as SCCC took down the Blue Dragons 3-0 inside of the Green House on Wednesday afternoon.
The last time these two teams faced off was in Hutchinson, Kansas where the Lady Saints and Blue Dragons went to five-sets in a close battle where Hutchinson came out on top. Just as it started in their first matchup, the first set inside of the Green House was blow for blow as Keala Wilson hammered down a kill from the left pin to tie up the set at 4-4 which eventually became a deadlocked score of 18-18. From their Seward County was able to gain control and take a lead where an ace from Lisa Gomez put them ahead 23-19 before wrapping it up 25-21 to take the first and go up 1-0 over the Blue Dragons.
Set two started off with an offensive barrage by Hutchinson who took an early 6-1 lead over the Lady Saints. SCCC quickly responded to the Blue Dragons run with a 7-1 run of their own as Clara Duarte and Lajla Rasljanin combined at the net for a block at the right pin to put Seward County ahead 8-7 in the second. Wilson connected on her eighth kill of the match to keep the lead growing and followed it with an ace to push the advantage to 14-9. Despite a late run from the Blue Dragons to bring the score to within five at 23-18, the Lady Saints made good on their comeback in the second as they took the set 25-19 to increase their lead to 2-0 over Hutchinson.
With momentum on their side, Seward County continued to shut down Hutchinson and grab the lead once again when Duarte connected on the slide to put SCCC up 6-3 to start the third set. The Lady Saints kept their lead alive as Rafaela DaSilva found Rasljanin in the middle of the net for a big kill to push the score to 17-15 and back-to-back kills from Jasmyn Kistller put Seward County ahead 20-17 before wrapping the third up at 25-22 and completing the 3-0 sweep over the Blue Dragons.
Three Lady Saints reached double figures in kills with Kistller leading the way with 12 kills on a .286 hit percentage while Wilson scored 11 and Duarte added 10. DaSilva dished out 36 assists and Winiffer Rodriguez led SCCC in digs with 17. Seward County now improves to 12-11 on the 2023 season and a conference record of 4-6 with their next matchup set for Saturday in a 6:30 contest at Garden City.
