Jay Daubenberger
Saturday afternoon the Seward County Lady Saints volleyball team made their way an hour down the road towards Garden City to take on the Broncbusters for the second time this season where despite taking down Garden City last time in five sets with a 3-2 victory, Seward County fell in a 3-0 sweep on the road to GCCC.
All three sets of the match were back and forth contests between the Lady Saints and Broncbusters, with the first set starting with Garden City taking an early three-point advantage before Keala Wilson connected on a kill from the pin to cut it to two at 8-6. Jasmyn Kistller helped push Seward County out in front with a huge kill of her own to give SCCC a 14-12 lead and it looked as if the Lady Saints were going to hold their advantage until the Broncbusters came storming back to tie up the set 21-21 before taking the first set 25-22.
Once again Garden City took the early lead to start the second 9-6 before Seward County began to climb back with Clara Duarte denying a Broncbuster attack at the pin for a solo block to cut it to 12-11 and a kill from the left pin by Wilson gave SCCC the lead at 15-14. The Lady Saints lead stretched to as high as five until the Broncbusters went on a run of their own to retake the lead 22-18 off of multiple receiving errors from Seward County before wrapping up the second 25-20 to improve to 2-0 in the match.
In the third the roles were reversed with the Lady Saints pulling out in front first with Kistller hammering home another kill to put them in front 6-4. SCCC maintained their lead for most of the set as Rafaela DaSilva connected on a skip-set kill in the middle of the net and Kistller dropped in an ace to push the lead to 17-14. Their lead did not last long with the Broncbusters creating momentum off of multiple errors from SCCC to take the lead 22-18 late in the set and finally finishing the set 25-22 and the match with a 3-0 sweep over Seward County.
The Lady Saints now fall to 12-12 on their 2023 season with a conference record of 4-7 in KJCCC action. They will return home to Liberal, Kansas to regroup and prepare for #19 Barton next Wednesday in a 6:30 PM matchup inside of the Green House.