Seward County continued their week on the road in Jayhawk conference action as they made a four hour trip out east to take on the Butler Grizzlies in El Dorado, KS where the Lady Saints looked to repeat a sweep from earlier in the season and while the end result was a sweep, it was Butler who was on the winning end as SCCC fell 3-0.
Both sides exchanged scores through the first twenty points as Mariana Silva rose up off the feed from Keala Wilson to strike down a massive kill at the pin to lock the score up at 13-13 in set one. A 7-1 run by the Grizzlies allowed them to take a commanding lead despite a tip kill in the middle from Lajla Rasljanin trimming the deficit down to five for Seward County. Another short run by Butler saw the Lady Saints give up four straight points to end the first set as Seward County fell 25-16 with the Grizzlies moving ahead one set to none.
Set two started with the Lady Saints catching fire early as Marcelina Pyka helped her team gain momentum off a pair of monster kills down the middle to pull in front 11-8 over Butler. SCCC did not remain ahead for long as the Grizzlies stormed back for another five-point lead until Silva went on a rampage for three straight kills to slash away at the deficit to cut it down to two at 19-17. Ana Nikolic kept the score within two with a kill of her own from the right side to make it 22-20 before a three to nothing run by Butler finished the second set with Seward County falling 25-20 as Butler raised their set lead to 2-0.
Self-inflicted wounds put the Lady Saints back in the rear-view mirror of the Grizzlies as Seward County was forced into a timeout with a 14-11 deficit to open the third. Nikolic tried to help her team climb back to within reach as she scored three straight points off a pair of kills and a block at the pin to close the gap and later connected on an ace to slash Butler’s lead down to 20-17. Unfortunately, her run was not enough to stop the Grizzlies from taking both set three and the match as they wrapped up the third 25-22 and handed the Lady Saints a 3-0 loss on the afternoon.
Seward County now falls to 7-13 overall on the 2024 season with a Jayhawk Conference record of 3-7 after falling to Butler. They will return to action on Wednesday inside of the Green House as they host the Pratt Beavers in a 6:30 PM matchup before entering a three game road stint.