Seward Pinks Out Barton

Needing two wins in the final week of the regular season to claim their share of a Jayhawk West Conference Championship, the Seward County Lady Saints took a big step number one Wednesday night, coming from behind to knock off Barton 3-1 on Dig Pink Night in the Greenhouse to improve to 13-2 in conference play on the year.

As expected, it was a highly competitive battle early on between the Lady Saints and Cougars who came into the match with nearly identical records on the season. The two teams split the first 14 points an even 7-7 and continued to go back and forth until Barton made a quick run midway through the first set to go in front 15-12. Seward remained at arm’s length for the remainder of the first before fighting off two Cougar set points, but a Lady Saints attack ultimately sealed their fate as Barton took the first 25-22 to go ahead 1-0 in the match. Seward shot themselves in the foot in the first, committing an uncharacteristic seven hitting errors as well as four service errors in the three point loss.

The second was again tight early on as neither team had more than a one point lead with the score tied at 10 after 20 points. It continued to be nip and tuck until a Seward run fueled by a pair of aces from Daimond Aguinaldo pushed the Lady Saints in front 19-16 to force a Cougar timeout. The run was enough to put the Lady Saints over the top as they went on to score 11 of the final 14 and the final six points of the set to finish off a 25-16 victory to even the match at one a piece.

For the third straight set, the score was tied at 8-8 through 16 points in the third. A 4-1 Seward County run put the Lady Saints in front 13-9 and then never looked back in the third. A crosscourt laser from Belissa Guidotti put Seward ahead 21-15 and Briana Domino went off the Barton block on set point to seal a 25-17 win for the Lady Saints to put them in front 2-1 in the match. Barton had no answer for the Seward attack in the third as the Lady Saints hit .481 with 13 kills and no errors in the period for the win.

Seward blitzed the Cougars with an early 5-0 run in the fourth to take the early advantage and then scored four more in a row to stretch the lead to 11-5 ahead of a Barton timeout. Out of the break it was more pink and green as Maritza Mesa came up with a big solo block to make it 18-11 and scored seven of the final ten points of the set to cruise to a 25-14 win to win the match 3-1.

The Lady Saints bounced back from a slow opening set to hit .292 on the night. Seward got a match high 13 kills from Mesa and Kaysie Paxton while the reigning Jayhawk West Player of the Week Mariana Nascimento had 11 errorless kills again to hit .550 on the night. Amanda Pereira had a big night for Seward at the setter position, dishing out a career high 44 assists while also pulling up 13 digs for her sixth double-double of the year. On the defensive end, Mesa corralled a career high 27 digs for the Lady Saints while Guidotti had a team best five blocks on the night.

Seward improves to 22-9 overall on the year and 13-2 in Jayhawk West Conference play with the victory while the Cougars fall to 22-9 overall and 9-6 in league action.

The Lady Saints win sets up a showdown Saturday night in the Greenhouse where Seward will now play for a share of the Jayhawk West Conference Championship when they take on Colby at 6:30 in their final regular season match of the year on Sophomore Night in Liberal.

SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON BOX SCORE<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbdHyvTLzJInMvMqS6khQB8kGVB1tmqgFkSdUezkLB0QvaZg/viewform?c=0&w=1>

Roy Allen