Seward Falls in Five to Blue Dragons

Jay Daubenberger

Liberal, KAN. – Seward County volleyball dropped their first conference matchup of the 2023 season Saturday afternoon on the road to the Hutchinson Blue Dragons in a five-set match where the Lady Saints fell short in a 3-2 loss to their conference rivals.
Both teams exchanged blows back-and-forth to start the match in set one with Lajla Rasljanin connecting on a kill from the middle to tie it up 7-7 before the Blue Dragons took flight and flew away on a 13-5 run to take a 20-12 lead before finishing the set 25-13 that gave Hutchinson a 1-0 lead.
Seward County refused to submit to the Blue Dragons as they got off to a hot start in the second with Jasmyn Kistller scoring her first career kill to give SCCC a 2-0 lead early in the set that soon blossomed into a 7-1 lead for the Lady Saints. Hutchinson fought back but the Lady Saints remained strong as a big block from Rasljanin and Keala Wilson grew the lead to 17-11 but again the Blue Dragons fought back and cut Seward County’s lead to 19-17. Hutchinson quickly cut the lead to one but that was as close as they would get as the Lady Saints once again pulled away as Marcelina Pyka and Rafaela DaSilva raised the roof on a block to put them up 22-18 and a over-dig kill from DaSilva wrapped up the second set 25-20 to tie the match up 1-1.
SCCC entered the third with momentum after winning the second but that was quickly put to a stop as Hutchinson started the set with a quick 4-0 start that grew throughout the set to a quick 10-2 lead for the Blue Dragons. Wilson tried to get her team back on track with a hard swung kill to decrease the deficit to eight, but Hutchinson once again put their foot on the gas and eventually ran away with the third 25-12 to regain the lead 2-1 over Seward County.
The Lady Saint’s looked more like themselves in the fourth set. Leading the way was Wilson and Dora Filipovic who got things started for SCCC and back-to-back aces from Rasljanin brought the lead to 5-2 early in the set. But just as always, Hutchinson continued to crawl back and eventually tied the set up 12-12 until Filipovic single handedly sparked the fire for the Lady Saints with five straight kills to push Seward County ahead 18-14. A big overpass kill down the middle from Rasljanin kept the lead alive 23-22 and moments later Filipovic put the set to rest with her 11th kill of the fourth set to win 25-22 and tie the match back up at 2-2 heading into the fifth.
For the fourth time during the 2023 season, Seward County entered a fifth set. Filipovic knocked down her 20th kill across the sideline to give SCCC a quick 2-1 lead, but the Blue Dragons quickly regained their advantage 10-7. Rasljanin and DaSilva combined once again at the net for a block to bring the deficit to within two but was unable to climb back as the Blue Dragons took the fifth 15-11 and the match 3-2.
Filipovic recorded her season high of 22 kills against the Blue Dragons with 11 of her kills coming in just the fourth set while also logging 16 digs on the match. Wilson followed behind with 14 kills and 14 digs of her own. DaSilva led the team in assists with 41 and Winiffer Rodriguez led them in digs with 26 through the match.
Seward County falls to 7-4 on the 2023 season and now sits at .500 in KJCCC action at 1-1. They will now return to Liberal, Kansas and take on Garden City this Wednesday in a 6:30 PM matchup inside of the GreenHouse.