Saints Outlast Garden City
KSCB News - October 22, 2015 12:55 pm
In front of a raucous Garden City crowd in the Perryman Center Wednesday night, the second place Seward County Lady Saints had a little bit tougher time than expected with the fired up eighth place Garden City Lady Broncbusters. Seward came out flat in the first, getting the Garden City crowd juiced up right off the bat. The Busters made a late run in the first to take the set 25-21 and a 1-0 lead in the match. The Lady Saints came back to even the match at one with a 25-18 win in the second and fought off the Busters 25-20 in the third to go ahead 2-1. With some steam taken out of the Garden sails in the fourth, Seward was able to seal the match with a 25-20 win to get out of the Perryman Center with a 3-1 victory.
The first time Seward County took on Garden City this season, the match didn’t even make it to an hour in length. Early on Wednesday, the Lady Saints knew that this contest with the Busters would be different as in front of their home crowd, Garden fought tough early on, drawing even with Seward at 7-7 in the first set before a 4-0 Lady Saint run capped by a kill from Megan Sharratt and an ace from Jade Piper put Seward on top 11-7. Seward extended their lead to 16-11 before a Garden kill and back to back Lady Saint hitting errors drew the Busters back to within two at 16-14. Another Seward push extended their lead to 20-16 and it looked like they would overcome the sluggish start, but the Busters caught fire at the end of the set, helped largely by Seward to make things interesting. A Seward service errors started the mess and attack errors on fve of the next six points allowed Garden City to score seven straight points to turn a 20-16 Seward lead into a 23-20 deficit for the Lady Saints. Garden scored one more before the Lady Saints got the bleeding stopped, but it was too little too late as the Busters shocked the Lady Saints in the first 25-21.
Garden carried their momentum right over into the second set, grabbing an early 7-5 lead before the Lady Saints cut the advantage back to one later on at 10-9. The two Jayhawk West rivals dueled through the middle of the set until Seward took control back 16-15. The Lady Saints stepped on the gas from there, finishing the set on a flurry before getting a solo block from Kaysie Paxton on the outside to finish the Busters off 25-18 and even the match at one. Seward took the set despite managing just nine kills as a team in the period. Coupled with five hitting errors, the Lady Saints hit just .167 as a team in the second set win.
The third set started oddly for Seward as after a brief five minute intermission before the start of the set, the Garden City team was nowhere to be found as the referees and the Lady Saints took the court ready for play. After over a two minute delay, the Busters emerged from their locker room to a yellow card and play finally got underway. The Garden City plan may have worked as Seward looked out of sorts to begin the period, falling behind 8-5 right off the bat. Twice the Lady Saints cut the Buster lead to one mid-set and each time, a Seward service error pushed the Garden lead back to two. The Lady Saints finally found their swing at the service line with back to back Sharratt aces to knot the match at 14 and the score went back and forth to another tie at 18-18 later in the set. Seward scored the next two to take a 20-18 lead before another service miscue made it a one point contest. This time though, the Lady Saints recovered, getting a pair of kills and a solo block from Paxton to give them set point and then a solo stuff from Sharratt in the middle to put the finishing touches on a 25-20 set win to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth was an interesting set to say the least. Garden City did not register their first kill of the set until the 18th point, however, thanks to some generosity from the Lady Saints, the score was tied 9-9 at that point. Maritza Mesa caught fire for Seward through the middle of the set, pushing the Lady Saints out to a lead, but again, errors hampered Seward’s ability to bury the Busters as they led by just four 16-12. Garden didn’t get their second kill of the set until the 32nd point, making it 18-14 Lady Saints when Seward again, showed signs of why they sit second in the league standings with a 6-3 run to push their lead to 24-17 and give themselves match point. A Buster kill followed by back to back errors for Seward made things interesting, as Garden cut the Lady Saints lead to 24-20, but when the Lady Saints needed a point, they turned to their captain Alex Wood who put a ball away on their fourth match point try to give the Lady Saints a 25-20 win to take the match 3-1.
Seward finished the match hitting .292 as a team, getting 10 or more kills from four different players on the night. Wood led Seward with a 12 kill, 12 dig double-double in the win while Sharratt and Viviane Viana each had 11 kills for the Lady Saints. Jade Piper dished out a team best 22 assists while Amanda Pereira had 18. Seward managed just six blocks as a team on the night, their lowest total in their past six Jayhawk West contests.
The win boosts the Lady Saints to 22-11 overall on the year and clinches them a home playoff match on November 3rd to open up the Region VI Tournament as they improve to 11-3 in Jayhawk West action. Garden City drops to 6-31 overall and 2-12 in league play on the season with the loss.
The Lady Saints now make their longest trip of the 2015 season to Hillsborough, Missouri where they will take part in the Jefferson College Halloween Classic Friday and Saturday. Seward will take on three strong teams in the tournament including #16 Illinois Central, #17 Jefferson, and #10 Missouri State-West Plains.
Seward returns to Jayhawk West action on Monday when they play Cloud County in Concordia in a battle that is likely to determine 2nd and 3rd place in the Jayhawk West race.
SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY BOX SCORE<http:
Roy Allen