Lady Saints Comeback Bid Dammed By Beavers

In a key Jayhawk West Conference match in one of the most hostile environments in the conference, the Seward County Lady Saints bid for a come from behind win against the Pratt Lady Beavers came up just short Tuesday night in Pratt as the Lady Saints let a 5-0 fifth set lead get away from them and the Beavers took the deciding set 15-12 to win 3-2 in front of a fired up Beaverdome crowd. 

As soon as the Lady Saints stepped foot in the Beaverdome Tuesday night they knew they would have their hands full with a Pratt squad that feeds off the energy of their raucous crowd.  Seward overcame the elements and led through the early part of the first set, carrying a 12-9 advantage to the midpoint of the period after back to back kills from Carolina Gasparini and Lindsey Schwab.  Back to back Lady Saint errors allowed the Beavers back to within one and a short time later Pratt tied the score up at 18.  A Seward attack error gave Pratt their first lead of the night and the Beavers used the momentum to close the set on a 9-2 run to win the first 25-20. 

The second set followed nearly the same script for the Lady Saints as Angelina Minor powered them out to an 11-9 lead early in the set and a pair of aces from Kari Anderson put them up 13-9.  Seward eventually extended their lead to 16-9 after a 7-0 run, but three straight Lady Saint mistakes allowed Pratt back in and the Beavers used it to go on an 11-4 jaunt of their own to tie the score at 20.  A kill by Gasparini gave Seward the lead back, but one of many ball handling errors on the night by the Lady Saints allowed Pratt to tie the score back up.  Two straight attack errors by Seward gave the Beavers a 23-21 lead and a Lady Saint service error gave Pratt set point where they closed out the gals in green 25-22. 

For the third straight set, Seward had a 12-9 advantage 21 points into the third set.  This time the Lady Saints benefitted from some Pratt miscues, including a stretch of 10 points without Seward earning a point while watching their lead grow from 7-5 to 12-9.  The Lady Saints kept a cushion and remained up by three at 19-16 after two straight crosscourt bullets from Minor.  Eventually Pratt showed some fight, coming back to tie the score at 22 after a Seward service error, but facing elimination, the Lady Saints got three straight kills from Gasparini and Alex Wood to close out the set to win 25-22 and live to see another set. 

In the fourth Seward faced their first early deficit of the match as back to back ball handling errors put them down 7-4 to get things going.  However, a pair of kills from Megan Sharratt sandwiched around a block by Sharratt and Gasparini, quickly had the score tied at 7 apiece.  Four errors in the Lady Saints next five points put Pratt back on top, but kills by Gasparini and Schwab followed by a solo block from Wood tied the score back up at 12.  The teams continued to play even to 20-20 when a Gasparini kill and an ace from Sharratt put Seward up by two and the Lady Saints seized the opportunity to finish Pratt off 25-21 to force a fifth set. 

Things were looking good early on for the Lady Saints in the fifth as they jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead in the deciding period.  However, a service error followed by a reception error by the Lady Saints got Pratt on the board where they made it a 6-3 contest.  Three big kills from Minor gave the Lady Saints an 8-4 lead at the changeover, but a 6-2 run by the Beavers quickly tied the set up at 10.  With the score tied at 11 two points later, two straight Seward attack errors gave Pratt a 13-11 lead and the Lady Saints never recovered as Pratt went on to win the fifth 15-12 to take the match 3-2. 

Gasparini and Minor finished with huge nights for the Lady Saints as the two time reigning Jayhawk West Player of the Week Gasparini recorded 17 kills and a career high 30 digs in the contest while Minor had a career high 22 kills, 10 over her previous career high of 12 set on Saturday against Jefferson.  Setter Nacole Miller also filled up the stat sheet for the Lady Saints, going for 31 assists and 15 digs in the loss while libero Kari Anderson continued to pile up the digs with 26 in the five setter. 

Seward suffers their fifth straight loss, falling to 22-18 on the  year and takes a big hit in Region VI Tournament positioning as they drop to 9-6 in Jayhawk West play.  Seward now sits in a 4^th place tie with Pratt who improves to 21-10, 9-6 on the year.  

The Lady Saints wrap up their regular season schedule Thursday at home in the Greenhouse where they host Cloud County on Sophomore Night at 6:30. 

SEWARD COUNTY/PRATT BOX SCORE