#7 Western Wyoming Too Much For Lady Saints

The Seward County Lady Saints gave it a run Friday night against #7 Western Wyoming, but in the end, the perennial national contender was just too much as Seward fell 28-26, 25-12, 25-22 to the Mustangs to fall to 11-9 overall on the 2014 campaign. 

Coming off of a big five set win earlier in the day against a 15 win Laramie County team, the Lady Saints came out of the gates strong against Western Wyoming, grabbing an early 6-2 lead and carrying their advantage to the middle portion of the first set at 13-9.  A pair of Thayna Silva kills kept the Lady Saints up by two to 17-15, but a powerful Western Wyoming bunch couldn't be held down much longer.  The Mustangs used a 5-1 run to take a 20-18 lead and the fight was on for the first set.  Two more Silva kills knotted the score at 22 and the count remained tied at 24-24 and then 25-25 as both team jostled for the key first set win.  A service error by the Lady Saints gave Western Wyoming their third crack at set point, but a block by Carolina Gasparini and Megan Sharratt kept Seward's hopes alive.  The Mustangs got a kill to pick up another set point chance and this time they finished the Lady Saints off, winning 28-26 to take a 1-0 lead in the match. 

The tough loss in the first set for Seward carried right on over to the second in an ugly start for the Lady Saints.  Western Wyoming scored the first nine points of the second set, aided by five Seward County errors to take a 9-0 lead.  The Lady Saints finally got on the board on a Mustang service error, but Western Wyoming scored four more straight points after the mistake to take a commanding 13-1 lead on the gals in green.  Seward played even with Western from there, but it was obviously far too little too late as the brutal start for the Lady Saints was all she wrote as the Mustangs took the second set 25-12 to go up 2-0. 

It was another poor start for the Lady Saints in the third set as they managed just one kill to go along with five early attack errors to fall behind 11-6 in the set.  A solo block from Alex Wood got Seward back on track and an ace from the freshman got them to within two moments later at 12-10.  The Lady Saints hung close from there, but just could never get over the hump as they remained at arm's length from the Mustangs.  A kill from Lindsey Schwab kept it a two point Western Wyoming advantage at 18-16 and a block from Schwab and Carolina Freitas made it 20-18 'Stangs.  Seward gave it one last burst as Silva picked up three late kills to draw the Lady Saints within one at 22-21 and an attack error drew Seward even at 22-22, but Western Wyoming scored the final three points of the set to win 25-22 and take the match 3-0. 

Seward hit just .083 as a team in the match with 28 kills and 19 errors in the three setter.  Silva led the Lady Saints with 8 kills in the loss while no other Seward player had more than 4 kills.  Nacole Miller led Seward with 13 assists while libero Kari Anderson had a team high 12 digs.  Sharratt and Wood each had 3 blocks to lead the way at the net for the Lady Saints. 

SEWARD COUNTY/#7 WESTERN WYOMING BOX SCORE

The loss drops Seward to 11-9 overall on the season while 7^th ranked Western Wyoming improves to 9-5 on the year. 

The Lady Saints will shift venues on Saturday, making it a true Wyo-Braska Shootout as they travel over to Torrington, Wyoming to take on Central and Eastern Wyoming to finish up their trip.