Seward County Steamrolls Past Beavers

Jay Daubenberger

After a rough couple of weeks that saw Seward County fall into a four-game losing streak, the Lady Saints volleyball team went out to take on the Pratt Beavers where they were able to finally get their mojo back with a 3-0 sweep to take the win over Pratt in Kansas Jayhawk Conference action.

It was all Seward County from the start as the Lady Saint’s early firepower helped stretch an early lead with a Lajla Rasljanin launching a rocket powered serve across the net for an ace to put Seward County ahead of Pratt 10-2 to open the first set. A few points later the sophomore connection between Rafaela Da Silva and Clara Duarte paid off with Da Silva finding Duarte on a slide to bring the score to 14-9 SCCC. Another big run for the Lady Saints helped them move out farther away from the Beavers as a block at the pin by Rasljanin and Patricia Mita increased their lead to 20-12 before Marcelina Pyka joined the block party a few points later to seal the first set win 25-17 off a solo block at the opposite pin.

The second set opened with the Lady Saints and Beavers exchanging blows with Pyka once again sending a Beaver attack back on a solo block to knot the score up at 5-5. With the contest looking to be dead even through the first twenty points, it was Seward County who pulled away to take a three-point lead thanks to a big swing by Duarte and seven points later she did it again to put SCCC up 18-12. With momentum in their favor the Lady Saints continued their onslaught against Pratt with Rasljanin and Da Silva building a dam of their own to block the Beavers at the net to push in front 22-14 and an absolute hammer from Dora Filipovic clinched the second set for Seward County 25-15 to take a 2-0 set lead in the match.

After taking the first two sets by storm the Lady Saints continued their conquest in the third as Duarte continued her hot streak with another kill off a slide to put SCCC in front 7-4 and they never looked back. Filipovic connected on an ace right inside the line to stretch the lead to five at 14-9 and soon after Duarte once again knocked down another kill at the right pin to put the score at 21-12. With everything going the way of the Lady Saints even SCCC’s libero Winiffer Rodriguez was able to sneak in a kill off a free ball to put it at match point 24-13 and a Beaver error helped Seward County win the set 25-13 and lock up the match in a 3-0 sweep win.

The Lady Saints now improve to 13-15 on the 2023 season and a conference record of 5-10 after now sweeping Pratt in both matchup this season. Seward County now focuses their attention on the Butler Grizzlies who they will face on the road this Saturday in a 2:00 PM matchup before starting the Region VI Tournament on November 1^st.