Jay Daubenberger
Liberal, Kansas – Seward County has reached the final week of the 2024 regular season and started their two-game homestead to end the campaign with a matchup against Dodge City where the Lady Saints competed back and forth with the rival Conquistadors but gave up to many aces throughout the contest to fall in a 3-0 sweep.
Seward County fell behind to open the first set as they played catch up all the way through with Mariana Silva trying to keep SCCC within reach as she struck down a kill from the pin to make the score 12-7 Conquistadors. Keala Wilson rose up for a powerful swing on the opposite side to add on to the Lady Saints’ total but a trio of errors from Seward County resulted in Dodge City stretching their lead out to 19-12. Lajla Rasljanin sent in an emphatic spike down the center of the net with Wilson again connecting on kill to try and fight back but could not stay close with the Conquistadors taking set one 25-14.
The Lady Saints struck first in the second set with Rasljanin connecting on a thunderous spike down the center of the court to push Seward County ahead by one fifteen points into the set for an 8-7 lead. In a constant back and forth through the next few points it was Dodge City who came away with a 3-0 run to retake the lead before a high flying kill from Wilson helped the Lady Saints gain momentum and trim the deficit back to two at 15-13. SCCC continued to close in on the opposing Conquistadors with Rasljanin tipping over a quick kill while Marcelina Pyka sent an overpass right back at Dodge City to force their opponents into a timeout with Seward County trailing by only one at 20-19. Despite a late kill in set two by Silva to lock up the score at 23 all, it was not enough to overtake the Conquistadors who moved ahead 2 sets to 0 with a 25-23 win in the second.
Set three was a struggle for Seward County through the first twenty points as a back-to-back aces from Dodge City forced SCCC into their first timeout down 5-1 and later their second after giving up three more aces to fall behind 14-4. Despite trailing by double figures, the Lady Saints never backed down as they slowly climbed back with Pyka rising up and spiking down a kill in the middle before a rocket from Silva brought the score back to within single digits as Seward County cut the Conquistadors’ lead to 21-13. A strong performance late in set three was not enough to cover up their rough start however as the Lady Saints ultimately fell 25-18 in the third to fall 3-0 to Dodge City on Wednesday afternoon.
Seward County now falls to 8-17 on the 2024 season with a conference record of 4-11 in KJCCC action. The Lady Saints will wrap up their regular season schedule on Saturday when they honor their five sophomores for sophomore night before taking on the Garden City Broncbusters at 6:30 PM.