Seward Breezes Past Dodge in Home Opener
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Dodge City Community College (3-10, 0-4) | 16 | 9 | 17 | 0 |
|
Seward County Community College (5-6, 2-1) | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
Behind a potent offensive attack from the arms of sophomores Alex Wood and Megan Sharratt and a barrage of aces from across the board, the Seward County Lady Saints rolled past the Dodge City Conquistadors 3-0 Thursday night in Seward's 2015 home opener in the Greenhouse.
The Lady Saints started things off right on Thursday, racing out to a 6-1 lead in the first set thanks in large part to a kill and a pair of aces from Viviane Viana. The aces kept on coming for Seward and after two more from Amanda Pereira, the Lady Saints led it 11-5 midway through the first. Dodge City cut the Lady Saint lead to 11-7 two points later, but that is as close as they would get. The Lady Saints continued to push, opening their lead to as many as nine before finishing the Conqs off on an Alex Wood kill to take the set 25-16. Seward had just seven kills in the first set, but they didn't need their offense too much in the win as their serve did the heavy lifting with eight aces to lead them to the nine point win.
It was another big start for Seward in the second set as Wood hammered down three kills in a row early in the period including a pair with her left hand to give the Lady Saints an 8-3 advantage. Back to back Seward hitting errors later on cut their lead to three and it was a four point set at 13-9 at the halfway point when the Lady Saints found their stride. With Viana at the service line following a Megan Sharratt kill, the Lady Saints rolled off the final 12 points of the set, including three aces from the freshman to blow the Conqs away 25-9 to take a 2-0 lead in the match. In one of the oddest stat lines you will find, the Lady Saints had just 12 total offensive attacks in the set, converting eight of those into kills while committing two errors to finish the set with an even .500 hitting percentage.
The start of the third set was riddled with mistakes by the Lady Saints allowing Dodge to take their first lead past the first point of a set at 5-4. Seward came back to tie the score at 8 and scored the next four points to take a 12-8 lead at the midway point. Back to back Seward errors allowed the Conqs to get within one later on at 14-13, but a kill by Kaysie Paxton got the Lady Saints back on track. With the score 16-14, the Lady Saints picked a good time to make a push, getting a pair of kills from Wood and another from Sharratt to go on a mini 4-1 run to give themselves some breathing room up 20-15. They closed the door on the Conqs from there, again using the right arms of Wood and Sharratt before getting the final blow on Pereira's fourth ace of the match to close out Dodge City 25-17. After not needing much offense in the first two sets, the Lady Saints hitters rose to the occasion in the third when they did, finishing with a dozen third set kills and a .286 hitting percentage on 28 swings.
Seward finished the match hitting .316, their best mark of the young 2015 season. Wood led the way, finishing with 12 kills without an error on 20 swings to post a career high .600 hitting percentage. She also racked up 12 digs in the victory, marking her fifth double-double of the year. Sharratt had seven kills and three aces for the Lady Saints while Brazilians Viana and Pereira combined for nine aces for Seward. Jade Piper led the Lady Saints with 18 assists in the win.
The Lady Saints improve to 5-6 on the year and 2-1 in Jayhawk West play with the victory while Dodge City's slow start to 2015 continues as they fall to 3-10 overall and 0-4 in West action.
Next up for the Lady Saints will be another conference battle as they continue their three game home stand on Monday hosting the Garden City Broncbusters in another 6:30 pm start in the Greenhouse.