Saints Win Wild One but Fall to Ranked Team in Scottsbluff

One week after tangling in Sterling, Colorado, the Lady Saints and Laramie County went at it once again at a neutral site Friday as they battled in Scottsbluff, Nebraska in the two teams opening match of the 2014 Wyo-Braska Shootout. Seward took the first two sets, but watched Laramie road back to take the next to to force a deciding fifth period. The Lady Saints grabbed the advantage early in the fifth and rolled to a 15-4 win to improve to 11-8 overall on the year.

The Lady Saints got off to a slow start in the first, falling behind 5-2 to start the match, but once they got things going, they came back to tie the score at 7 and then went on to score the next five points on kills from Carolina Gasparini, Angelina Minor, and Taryn Bedore to take a 12-7 lead midway through the first set. Gasparini continued to lead the Seward charge, getting a kill and ace on back to back plays to keep the Lady Saints up 16-11, but Seward hit a rough patch later in the set and saw Laramie climb all the way back to within one at 23-22 on an attack error at the net. The Lady Saints regrouped and got a kill from Carolina Freitas in the middle followed by another kill in the middle by Megan Sharratt to hang on and close out the first set with a 25-22 win. Seward had 17 kills in the first set, hitting .333 as a team, just two days after hitting negative as a team in their loss to Hutchinson.

The Lady Saints grabbed control early on in the second set, quickly going on top 6-2 on back to back kills from outside hitters Thayna Silva and Alex Wood. Seward continued to lead through the middle of the set, but three costly errors allowed Laramie back in and the Golden Eagles cut the Lady Saints lead to just one at 17-16 later in the set. Seward led 21-19 when back to back hitting errors allowed Laramie to tie the score and the Eagles took a 22-21 lead before the Lady Saints scored three straight to give themselves two cracks at set point. Seward couldn’t close Laramie out this time and watched as the Eagles came back to tie the score at 24. The teams traded the next two points before Seward went back to the middle as they did in the first set, getting kills from Freitas and Sharratt to close things out to win 26-24.

The third set was even through the first part of the set and after a pair of Seward blocks from Silva and Sharratt and a pair of Eagle kills, the score was tied at 9. Laramie took control from there, taking a 15-12 lead on a Seward attack error before running off five points in a row later on to go on top 20-15. The Lady Saints came close late, but were never able to overcome the deficit, closing the gap to just one at 24-23 late in the set, before watching Laramie win it 25-23 to take the match to the fourth.

Seward got off to another good start in the fourth set, grabbing a quick 5-2 lead, but Laramie came back to even things up at 8-8. The Eagles scored four of the next five points to take a 12-9 lead and continued to lead through the middle part of the period before extending their lead to 20-14 on back to back kills. This time the Lady Saints were unable to make much noise late in the set and the Golden Eagles took a 24-19 lead before finishing Seward off 25-20 to send it to the fifth.

With all the momentum on the side of Laramie County, the Lady Saints and Golden Eagles went to a fifth and deciding set. Laramie served the opening ball into the net and it was a sign of things to come for the gals from Cheyenne, Wyoming as three more errors later, Seward had themselves a 4-0 lead in the 15 point set. The Lady Saints continued to push, getting a kill and a solo block from Gasparini to take a 6-1 lead and another solo rejection from the Lady Saints star gave Seward a commanding 10-2 lead later on. Seward gave Laramie no hope of a comeback in this one as they extended their lead to double digits before putting the Eagles away the same way they had in their first two set wins, with a kill from Sharratt in the middle to give them a 15-4 win in the set to seal the deal on the match.

After a dismal offensive performance on Wednesday against Hutchinson, the Lady Saints rebounded with a nice offensive showing in this one, hammering down 57 kills, a season high, and hitting .143 as a team. Gasparini led the way with her best showing of the year, finishing off 18 kills and registering 20 digs for the Lady Saints. Freitas and Sharratt had nice mornings in the middle for the Lady Saints, combining for 18 kills and 7 blocks. Nacole Miller dished out a team high 28 assists and had 15 digs for her second straight double-double. Fellow setter Taryn Bedore did the same with 18 assists and 12 digs. Kari Anderson led a deadly back row for the Lady Saints that pulled up a season high 129 digs in the win. Anderson notched a career high 35 digs in the win while Silva had 30 for Seward. The Lady Saints also upped their blocking efforts, picking up 8 blocks as a team in the victory, their most as a team in three weeks.

The Lady Saints snap a mini three game losing streak with the victory, improving to 11-8 overall on the season. Laramie suffers their second defeat at the hands of Seward in as many weeks and falls to 15-4.

Seward will continue play in the Wyo-Braska Shootout on Friday afternoon when they battle #8 Western Wyoming at 4:00.

SEWARD COUNTY/LARAMIE COUNTY BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wvball/2014-15/boxscores/20140919_eni5.xml>