Tuesday night the Seward County Lady Saints continued their road stint to start the season as they made the trip out west towards Colorado to take on Lamar where despite fighting tooth and nail with the Lopes, SCCC was unable to finish the job as they fell in five sets 3-2.
Seward County opened the match up on an absolute tear through Lamar’s defense as Ana Nikolic and Camden Bizot combined for a pair of kills for a 4-0 run and a 7-4 lead to start the first set. Another properly placed kill from the outside by Keala Wilson helped grow the difference out to six before a run from the Lopes trimmed the gap all the way down to two before a final error from Lamar sealed the first set 25-22 in favor of SCCC.
Just like in the first set, the Lady Saints made their way past Lamar through the first few points as Bizot found Mariana Silva with a perfectly placed pass to the pin for an emphatic kill to grab a 13-8 lead in the second. Seward County could not hold on to the lead however as the Lopes charged in front to take the lead away despite some offensive help again from Wilson and Bizot to trim the gap back down to three with Seward County trailing 19-16. Despite a rally to climb back to within one point of tying up the second, the Lady Saints could not overcome Lamar who took the set 25-23 and tie the match at 1-1.
SCCC kept their foot on the gas entering the third with an offensive onslaught to open the set with back-to-back aces from Lisa Gomez to push Seward County ahead by seven 11-4. Their lead did not stop there as a flurry of kills from the outside by Silva helped to grow the difference out to ten at 17-7 before Lamar created a run of their own to close in on the Lady Saints who gave it everything, they had to hold on to the third set 25-21 for a 2-1 set lead.
Roles were reversed in the fourth as it was Lamar who shot out in front with a double digit lead as SCCC fell behind 14-4 before finally finding their rhythm. Wilson floated in a duo of soft touch kills while Lajla Rasljanin countered with a heavy hand for a hammer down the middle of the net to bring the score within seven at 20-13. Rasljanin added to the scoring front with two straight aces to increase the Lady Saints momentum but could not finish the task at hand as Lamar forced a fifth set with a 25-20 win in the fourth.
The final set was a back and forth contest through the first fifteen points as Silva and Wilson each added to their kill totals to keep SCCC within one at 7-6, but Lamar managed to pile on to their offensive game and quickly silenced Seward County and took the final set 15-9 for a 3-2 win overall.
Seward County now falls to 2-3 on the 2024 campaign and will prepare for another long road trip as they head to Laramie County for the Marriot’s SpringHill Suites Cheyenne Invitational where they will take on #15 Casper, Central Arizona, Northeastern, and Trinidad State over the course of two days on August 30-31st.