Jay Daubenberger
Liberal, Kansas – Seward County stepped back into the Green House on Monday to finish their non-conference schedule in a rematch against the Lamar Lopes with revenge on the mind of the Lady Saints who got their payback in the form of a 3-0 sweep to get their names back in the win column.
Seward County started the first set with a 3-0 run that allowed them to grab momentum early with Marcelina Pyka and Zeynep Olcay Balci each connecting on kills off the feed from Camden Bizot to take a 6-3 lead over the Lopes. Mariana Silva rose up high to send down a monster kill at the pin to put the Lady Saints over the 15-point mark to keep SCCC’s lead alive before Lamar rallied back to tie the score up at 20-20. The Lopes galloped ahead by a pair of points but were slashed away when a spike down the middle from Pyka helped Seward County regain the lead heading into extra points where an ace from Bizot and another punch from Pyka finished the first set with a 26-24 win for the Lady Saints.
In set two it was Lamar who started the set strong with a 5-1 run to push ahead before a kill from Keala Wilson at the pin and a hammer from Lajla Rasljanin helped trim the gap down to three at 8-5. Seward County capitalized on a streak of errors from the Lopes to tie the score back up while a powerful serve from Rasljanin landed in for an ace to give SCCC an 11-9 lead twenty points through the second. Back-to-back kills from Silva put the Lady Saints ahead by three and a few points later she cashed in another one to secure set two in favor of the team in green with a 25-18 win.
Both sides exchanged blows in the third to try and grab hold of any lead they could muster with Lamar being the first to do so as a pair of errors from Seward County put the Lopes in front 7-4. The Lady Saints rallied back however with Silva and Pyka combining for a pair of kills to push SCCC ahead with Pyka later sending hit down the middle for kill number eight to give her team a 16-13 lead over Lamar. Silva continued to rack up the kill numbers in set three by adding another two points to the Lady Saints total to put the game in match point with the clincher coming from Meloni Miller for a 25-21 set three win to complete a 3-0 sweep over the Lopes.
Seward County now improves to 6-11 overall on the 2024 campaign while remaining at 2-5 in Jayhawk Conference action. The Lady Saints will now be on the road for each of their next three matches beginning with a drive down the road to face the Garden City Broncbusters on Wednesday with first serve scheduled for 6:30 PM.