Wood Leads Seward Block Party in Win Over Eastern Wyoming

One area of concern for Seward County Head Coach Bert Luallen this season has been his team's inability to put up a consistent block against their opponents.  Saturday afternoon that certainly wasn't a problem as the Lady Saints racked up a season high 12 blocks as a team as they swept away homestanding Eastern Wyoming in three sets on day two of the 2014 Wyo-Braska Shootout. 

The Lady Saints got things going early on against the Lancers, jumping out to a big early lead on Eastern, taking a 5-1 advantage to begin the first set and then extending the gap all the way to 12-2 at the midway point.  Seward continued to push, holding a double digit lead to 19-9 on a kill from Carolina Gasparini.  Back to back Seward errors allowed Eastern to within eight and after a Lady Saint block, two more errors let the Lancers creep back in to within five at 21-16.  A kill from Thayna Silva pushed the Seward lead to six once again, but Eastern rolled off the next four points to all of a sudden make it a game at 22-20.  It remained a two point game to 24-22 and Eastern Wyoming looked to cut it to a one point Lady Saint advantage, but Megan Sharratt would have none of that, getting a solo block to end the set and give the gals in green a 25-22 first set win. 

Seward continued their strong blocking to begin the second set, but a rash of Lady Saint errors allowed Eastern Wyoming to hang around and the score was tied after 20 points at 10-10.  After trading points, the score was tied at 11 when the Lady Saints went cold and Eastern Wyoming took advantage, going on a 7-2 run to take a 18-13 lead in the set.  The Lady Saints deficit remained at five to 21-16 when they finally got their offense going.  Kills from Sharratt and Silva jump started the offense and a block from the pair, followed by two more kills from the duo drew Seward even at 22-22.  After the Lancers picked up a sideout, a service error by Eastern tied the score at 23.  A kill from Gasparini gave Seward set point, but a Lady Saint service error kept that from happening for the time being.  Eastern finished the set with back to back attack errors, more less handing the Lady Saints the set 26-24 to take a 2-0 lead. 

The poor ending by the Lancers seemed to have taken the wind out of their sails as the Lady Saints came at Eastern Wyoming like gangbusters in the third set, getting four kills and a solo block to take a 6-0 lead to begin the set.  Eastern cut the Seward lead to four a short time later, but three straight kills from Silva put the Lady Saints back up comfortably 11-4.  Seward continued to press forward, getting a kill on an overpass from Carolina Freitas to make it a 16-6 score and a block from Sharratt and Wood later in the set kept the Lady Saints lead double digits at 21-11.  Wood picked up a solo block to give Seward set point and Sharratt, who has become the Lady Saints closer of late, finished off her fourth set in two days with a kill to give the gals in green a 25-12 win. 

After averaging well over 20 attack errors per match in their past five contests, the Lady Saints had just 13 in the win over Eastern Wyoming.  The Lady Saints hit .206 as a group, led by Silva who posted a 13 kill, 13 dig, double-double. Gasparini was second on the team with 7 kills and led Seward with 17 digs while Sharratt had 6 kills without an error and also had 4 blocks for the Lady Saints.  The Lady Saints recorded a season high 12 blocks as a team in the victory including a career high 7 total blocks for freshman Alex Wood and 5 for fellow rookie Lindsey Schwab. 

SEWARD COUNTY/EASTERN WYOMING BOX SCORE

The Lady Saints improve to 12-9 overall on the season with the victory while Eastern Wyoming's struggles continue as they fall to 4-13.  Seward will wrap up their play at the Wyo-Braska Shootout later Saturday afternoon when they battle a red hot Central Wyoming squad in Torrington.