Seward Women Wrap Up Regular Season with a Tie

Jay Daubenberger

Liberal, Kansas – Seward County wrapped up their 2024 regular season at home on Saturday where the Lady Saints honored their 2024 sophomore class before taking the field with the Barton Cougars who SCCC evened out with 2-2 after 90:00 minutes of action to gain a result against their KJCCC foe heading into postseason play next week.

The two Jayhawk Conference adversaries competed up and down the field through most of the first half of action as Seward County looked to get on the board early but both sides were held silent through the first half hour of competition. In the 30^th minute however it was Barton who struck first as a gust of wind lifted a shot from the Cougars which landed in the highest part of the crossbar to put SCCC behind 1-0. It did not take long for the Lady Saints to answer as Seward County earned a corner kick which Dayra Dinarte sailed straight to Jairely Ibarra who struck gold on her first shot of the afternoon to even up the score 1-1 before heading into the halftime break.

Both teams continued to battle back and forth to open the second half with the Lady Saints finding their way downfield for an open shot from Natoya Atkinson who missed just outside of the goal to keep the score even after the 60^th minute. Seward County once again found themselves in a difficult situation with Barton finding stride towards the goal as the Cougars opened fire and landed in another high riser to put SCCC behind once more at 2-1 in the 72^nd minute. Once more the Lady Saints needed to find a response and Dinarte was the response they needed as a foul in the box allowed the sophomore midfielder to step up and sink a perfect shot past the opposing goalie to lock the score up again at 2-2 in the 80^th minute. With ten minutes remaining Seward County continued to try and push ahead to take over the lead but were unable to sink another goal in before the final buzzer with the game ending in a 2-2 draw for a result.

The Lady Saints now sit at 2-11-6 heading into the postseason while holding a conference record of 1-10-5. Seward County now waits to see who they will face in the first round of the Region VI Tournament in the upcoming week. Stay tuned to SewardSaints.com and @sewardsaints on social media platforms to stay up to date on the Lady Saints upcoming matchups.