Seward Sweeps Jayhawk West Awards

After a 5-0 week that included a rise to 2nd place in
the Jayhawk West Conference and an Ozfest Invitational Tournament
Championship, two Seward County Lady Saints were the recipients of
conference awards on Tuesday. Carolina Gasparini earned her second
Player of the Week award of the 2013 season while teammate Morgan Riley
was named the Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this
year.

Seward County freshman Carolina Gasparini had an
outstanding week for the Lady Saints, recording five straight
double-doubles, leading them to a perfect 5-0 record and an Ozfest
Invitational Tournament Championship over the weekend. She averaged
3.52 kills and 3.74 digs per set for Seward on the week and was named to
the Ozfest All-Tournament Team on the outside. Wednesday she had 19
kills and 17 digs against Cloud County and backed it up with a 17 kill,
22 dig performance against Barton, in a four set Jayhawk West win for
Seward Friday. In the Lady Saints second match of the day Friday she
notched another double-double, hammering out 15 kills and pulling up 10
digs in a win over Frank Phillips. Saturday she kept up the good work,
matching 17 kills with 17 digs against Western Texas and finishing her
weekend with 13 kills and 20 digs against Vernon.

Riley was a force at the net for the Lady Saints this
week, leading them to five wins including a pair of conference victories
over Cloud County and Barton. Wednesday on the road in Concordia, Riley
finished with 9 blocks, including 5 solo rejections as Seward knocked
off the T-Birds. Friday she was back at it again, finishing a win over
Frank Phillips with 6 total blocks and wrapped up the week with 4 and 5
block nights against Western Texas and Vernon. On the week she averaged
1.17 blocks per contest and also added 19 digs and 7 aces in the five
contests. She was named to the Ozfest Invitational All-Tournament Team
for her efforts.

Seward has now won the Jayhawk West Player of the Week
award three times this season, Gasparini twice and Annelise Sanchez
once, while the Lady Saints have taken home Defensive Player of the Week
honors four times in the first seven weeks of the 2013 season with Riley
winning the award twice, and Kelci Bedingfield and Kari Anderson earning
it once each.

Gasparini and Riley will look to be on their game once
again on Wednesday as they face Hutchinson in a key Jayhawk West battle
in the Greenhouse. With a win the Lady Saints would move into 2nd place
by themselves and put the Lady Saints just one game out of the race for
a West Championship. A Blue Dragon victory would all but knock Seward
out of the race for the conference crown and would keep Hutch just a
game behind Colby for the title.

Roy Allen