Clash of the Titans Goes the Way of Hutch 3-2

It was as good of atmosphere as you could have possibly asked for for a junior college volleyball match Wednesday night in the Greenhouse in Liberal as the Seward County Lady Saints took on the rival Hutchinson Lady Blue Dragons with first place in the Jayhawk West on the line.  Seward blazed out to a 2-0 lead in the match, taking the first 25-22 and the second 26-24, but lost momentum in the third and fourth as the Dragons tied the match with 25-21 and 25-20 wins.  The teams traded runs in the fifth, but in the end it was Hutchinson with the run at the end, taking the set 15-12 to win the match 3-2.

The first set began as advertised between the top two teams in the Jayhawk West, a back and forth battle to a 9-9 tie early on.  Seward made the matches first real push midway through the set, taking a 14-10 lead on a big block from Viviane Viana and Belissa Guidotti on the outside.  Later on in the set, back to back rejections from Kaysie Paxton and Guidotti gave Seward their largest lead to that point in the set at 20-14 and the Lady Saints hung on late to win the first 25-22 on a Megan Sharratt kill in the middle. 

The second set followed somewhat of the same script early on as neither team had more than a one point lead until a Viana kill put the Lady Saints up 9-7.  An ace from Madison Hoelting extended Seward's cushion to three and the Lady Saints pushed their advantage to four midway through the set on another Viana blast to make it 14-10.  Hutchinson made their run though as well, tying the score at 17 before a Seward timeout.  The Lady Saints came out of the break and scored three straight to go back in front 20-17 and looked like they were going to have smooth sailing to a 2-0 lead as they led 24-20 after back to back Dragon miscues.  However, Seward was denied on four straight set point tries, including the final three coming on attack errors to allow the Dragons to tie the score up at 24.  A big kill from Alex Wood put momentum back on Seward's side and the Lady Saints finished Hutch off with another key block, this time coming from Wood and Guidotti to put the final stamp on a 26-24 victory. 

Once again, neither side was able to get a grip early on in the third set as they traded the lead back and forth until they found themselves knotted up at 11 as they neared the midway point.  This time it was the Dragons with a mid-set push to grab the lead as they scored four straight to go ahead 15-11.  Seward was able to trim the Hutch lead to one after back to back kills from Maritza Mesa and Guidotti later in the period, but the Lady Saints could never quite get over the hump, falling 25-21 as Hutch remained alive in the match. 

It was a dreadful start for the Lady Saints in the fourth as they managed just three kills in the first 20 points of the set as Hutchinson raced out to a 14-6 early advantage.  Seward was never able to recover from the slow start as they made a pair of pushes late, but couldn't get closer than four at 23-19 before Hutchinson finished them off 25-20 to tie the match at two. 

The Dragons carried the momentum into the fifth, scoring the first four points to jump ahead 4-0.  The Lady Saints then pushed back, scoring three straight to cut the Hutchinson lead to 4-3.  It was an 8-6 Hutch lead at the changeover before a 3-1 run by Seward tied the score up at 9-9.  Hutch sided out to go back in front 10-9 but Sharratt answered with a kill for Seward to once again tie the score up, this time at 10.  The Lady Saints were called in the net on the next play and then sent an attack into the twine to hand Hutch a 12-10 lead.  A Dragon error made it 12-11, but they followed that up with a kill to push their lead back to two at 13-11.  A crucial double contact call on the Lady Saints gave the Dragons match point at 14-11 and after the Lady Saints were successful on fighting off Hutch's first attempt to make it 14-12, the Dragons put them away with a kill down the line to win 15-12 and take the match 3-2.

After being extremely efficient on the offensive end in their last eight Jayhawk West contests since their first date with the Dragons, the Lady Saints slipped Wednesday night, committing 28 hitting errors to hit just .189 on the night.  Seward had three players with double-doubles in the loss including Wood who finished with 13 kills and 13 digs, Viana who had a team best 16 digs to go along with 12 kills, and Amanda Pereira who finished with a team high 26 assists and 10 digs.  Seward finished with 11 blocks against the potent Dragon attack, getting eight from Guidotti and four from Viana to lead the way. 

The hard fought loss for Seward drops the Lady Saints to 20-10 overall and 9-2 in Jayhawk West action on the season where they remain just 0.5 games out of first place behind Hutch.  The Dragons improve to 18-4 on the year and retake the top spot from Seward at 9-1 in league action. 

Seward will now have to get it done away from the friendly confines of the Greenhouse as they will play their next four Jayhawk West contests on the road.  The stretch begins Saturday when they make the long trip to El Dorado to take on Butler in a 2:00 start in the Power Plant. 

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