Lady Saints Comeback Nets Them Big Win Over Pratt

It was still only the middle of September, but the intensity in the Greenhouse ramped up to an October feel Wednesday night as the Seward County Lady Saints hosted the Pratt Lady Beavers.  The Beavers jumped out to a 2-1 lead on Seward after three sets, but the Lady Saints stayed alive with a 25-18 fourth set victory.  In a wild fifth set, Seward jumped out to a 5-1 lead before Pratt roared back to take an 8-6 lead.  Just when it looked like the Lady Saints were in trouble, sophomore Alex Wood took over for Seward, scoring four of Seward's final eight points to will them to a 15-9 win to take the match 3-2. 

After slow starts had plagued them earlier in the season, the Lady Saints began to look like they were shaking that trend, including Wednesday as they jumped out to a 5-2 lead on Pratt behind kills from Megan Sharratt, Viviane Viana, and Kaysie Paxton, as well as a block from Sharratt and Alex Wood to grab the early advantage.  An ace from Amanda Pereira kept Seward up three 8-5, but a Beaver run midway through the set knotted the score up at 12.  The teams literally traded points back and forth to a 17-17 tie when Seward finally put two points back to back to take a 19-17 lead.  The lead was short-lived though as Pratt quickly tied the score back up at 20 before Seward seemed to have lost their direction to close the set as the Beavers scored the final five points to come away with a 25-20 win.  Seward hit just .029 in the set, committing eight hitting errors while also handing Pratt six points on service errors in the period. 

Seward got off to another good start in the second, bolting out to an early 9-5 lead behind six combined kills from Sharratt, Wood, and Viana.  The Lady Saints stretched their lead to five at 13-8 on two more kills from Viana and took their largest lead to that point in the set at 16-8 after Wood and Sharratt connected on back to back kills.  After a mini Pratt run, two straight Lady Saint reception errors cut their lead down to four, but following a Seward timeout, the gals in green figured things back out with a barrage of putaways and a pair of aces from Wood to close the Beavers out 25-15.  After a putrid offensive showing in the first, the Lady Saints were in tune in the second, hammering down 12 kills with just one error in 25 chances, good for a .440 percentage in the set. 

The Lady Saints couldn't keep the momentum into the third however.  This time it was Pratt racing out to a big early lead, taking an 8-3 advantage on the Lady Saints after three straight Seward errors.  Back to back kills from Wood got Seward back into it, but a costly service error broke their run and Pratt used the Lady Saint mistake to go on a run of their own to take a 15-8 lead halfway through the set.  The Beavers blew the score wide open later on as Seward never got closer than six to their neighbors to the East before Pratt finally finished the Lady Saints off 25-16 to go ahead 2-1 in the match.  Again, the West side of the floor was not kind to Seward who had just seven kills in the set to go along with seven errors to end the period with a .000 hitting mark.  In the set, 14 of Pratt's 25 points came thanks to Lady Saint errors. 

With their backs to the wall and the fourth set tied at 2 early on, the Lady Saints used four Wood kills to go on a 7-1 burst to take a 9-3 lead on Pratt.  Seward continued their strong play to keep their distance from the Beavers and took their largest lead of the night after an ace from Viana and a kill from Maritza Mesa to make it 18-8. Pratt never threatened and Seward put the nail in the coffin on a Jade Piper to Sharratt hook up in the middle on set point to give them a 25-18 win, evening up the match at 2-2.  Seward banged out 14 kills in the set and like the second set, had just one error to finish with a sparkling .448 hitting percentage.  After 14 recorded errors in the third set loss, the Lady Saints committed half that number in the fourth en route to the win. 

With all the marbles on the line in the fifth, the Lady Saints bolted out to a 5-1 lead on the Beavers, getting a pair of kills from Sharratt and another from Viana to take the early four point lead.  Just when it looked like momentum was on the side of the gals in green, Pratt went on a 7-1 run of their own, aided by six Seward County errors, to flip the script and take an 8-6 lead of their own.  Seward kills from Wood and Belissa Guidotti tied the set back up and a huge block by the pair put the Lady Saints back in front 9-8.  The stuff block seemed to have changed the air in the building as Seward scored the next four points, opening their lead to 13-8 before another big kill by Wood, her 19^th of the match gave the Lady Saints their first of four shots at match point.  They would only need one though as Mesa found the floor on a tip on Seward's next chance and the Greenhouse erupted as the Lady Saints finished Pratt off 15-9 to take the match 3-2. 

Wood was spectacular once again for the Lady Saints in the win, banging down a career high 19 kills with just two errors to finish with a .386 hitting percentage in the match.  With 17 kills through the first four sets, Wood extended her errorless streak to 39 straight in Seward's past four matches before a fifth set block ended that streak.  Viana had her third double digit kills match in four outs with 11 while Mesa and Sharratt each had eight for the Lady Saints.  Piper dished out a team best 29 assists in the win while Pereira had 16 for Seward.  Kimberly Diaz led Seward with 18 digs with Viana narrowly missing a double double with nine.  The Lady Saints block was much improved in the win, finishing with six total stuffs, led by Guidotti's five in the middle. 

Seward wins their third straight to take sole possession of 2^nd place in the Jayhawk West standings at 4-1 in conference action.  The Lady Saints also inch above the .500 mark on the season at 7-6 overall.  Pratt drops their sixth straight match after a hot start, falling to 8-9 overall and 3-2 in West action. 

The Lady Saints will not have much time to celebrate the win as they turn around and make the long bus ride to Torrington, Wyoming and Scottsbluff, Nebraska this weekend for the Wyo-Braska Shootout where they will take on Eastern, Western, and Central Wyoming as well as Laramie County in the two day event.  Seward returns home next Wednesday for another big Jayhawk West battle against Cloud County at 6:30. 

SEWARD COUNTY/PRATT BOX SCORE