Rival Busters No Match for Seward

The Seward County Lady Saints went up to Garden City and took care of business against their longtime rivals on Saturday, winning for the 23rd straight time against the Busters in a 3-0 sweep to earn their 10th Jayhawk West Conference win of the season.

The Lady Saints set the tone right away in the first, scoring 10 of the first 11 points of the match to jump out to an early 10-1 lead. Seward hit a dead spot midway through the first and the Busters took advantage, cutting the Lady Saints lead down to just four at 12-8. Three straight Garden City errors quickly increased Seward’s cushion back to seven and it was all Lady Saints from there. Back to back blocks from Mariana Nascimento and Briana Domino pushed the Seward lead to 10 and a kill from Belissa Guidotti in the middle finished the Busters off in the first with the Lady Saints taking the set 25-14. The Busters had no answer for the Seward attack in the first as the Lady Saints hammered down 14 kills with just two errors to hit .444 in the period.

Seward got off to another big start in the second as they banged home seven kills in the first 11 points in the set to jump out to a 9-2 lead on the Busters. The Lady Saints held their seven point lead to the midway point of the set and Garden City continued to shoot themselves in the foot, stretching the Seward lead to double digits at 20-10. A Kimberly Diaz ace squeaked over the net to give Seward a 23-11 lead and a block from Guidotti and Kaysie Paxton finished the second in style as the Lady Saints took the set 25-12 to go ahead 2-0 in the match.

The Lady Saints emptied their bench in the third and Garden took advantage, hanging around with Seward to the tune of just a three point Lady Saint lead midway through the set. After taking a 15-10 lead on back to back kills from Maritza Mesa, three straight Seward errors and a Buster kill closed the Lady Saints lead all the way down to just one at 15-14. A 4-1 run for the Lady Saints cushioned their lead back to four at 19-15 and a kill from Paulina Zach moments later made it a 22-17 game, but a scoring error at the table turned a five point Seward lead into just a three point spread to the tune of a yellow card for Coach Thais Baziquetto-Allen who was less than satisfied with the officials explanation of the mix-up. The gaffe seemed to have lit a fire under the Lady Saints who got back to back kills from Paxton to make it officially a five point lead for Seward and the gals in green didn’t let up in the end, finishing off the Busters 25-19 to wrap up a 3-0 sweep.

Seward hit .327 in the win, getting 12 kills from Mesa to lead the way. Nascimento dialed up another errorless match for the Lady Saints, smashing home 10 kills on just 13 swings, just as she did Wednesday to finish the week with 20 kills and no errors on 26 total swings, good for a cool .769 hitting percentage. Giovanna Kuntze posted her second double-double in three matches with 24 assists and 12 digs while Jazlyn Smith tallied a team best 16 digs in the win. The league’s best blocking team had eight on the afternoon, contributed on by nine different players including Guidotti who had a team best five.

Seward improves to 19-9 overall and 10-2 in Jayhawk West action on the season to remain one game behind Colby for the top spot. Garden City continues a forgettable campaign as they fall to 5-23 overall and 1-12 in league play.

The Lady Saints will have a quick turnaround on Monday when they head to Dodge City to play the first ever game in the brand new Dodge City Student Activities Center before returning home Wednesday to take on Cloud County in the Greenhouse.

Roy Allen

SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wvball/2016-17/boxscores/20161015_hfa2.xml>