Luallen Gets Career Win #400 as Lady Saints Roll on Day Two at Lamar

Following a pair of error riddled losses on their opening day of the 2013 season Friday, the Seward County Lady Saints bounced back on Saturday, looking sharp in a pair of wins over Trinidad State and Laramie County.  Seward swept Trinidad in their first match of the day before bouncing Laramie in the back end of their daily schedule to give Head Coach Bert Luallen his 400^th career win.

                Things didn't start too rosy for the gals in green on Saturday as three of their first four serves of the first set against Trinidad went awry and Seward found themselves in a 6-3 hole.  After a stern talking to by Bert Luallen, the Lady Saints regrouped and fought their way back into the set before a 3-0 run midway through put them in front 15-13.  Seward continued to play solid, extending their lead to 22-18 on Carolina Gasparini's third kill of the set before finishing strong to win 25-20 to take a 1-0 lead.  The Lady Saints hammered out 15 kills in the set, a far cry from the 9+ that they averaged in their losses on Friday. 

                The Lady Saints once again had a slow start to the second set, quickly falling behind 11-6 as their passing and offense sputtered.  Through the first 17 points of the set, the Lady Saints were without a kill on 14 chances.  Seward's block picked up the slack for its slumping offensive play, getting a pair of rejections at the net midway through the set to work their way back into things.  A combo block from Morgan Riley and Nacole Miller drew the Lady Saints to within two at 18-16 and Seward scored five straight including three straight kills from Gasparini as the momentum shifted to give the gals in green the lead for the first time in the set 21-18.  The Trojans wouldn't go away though and made things interesting late, getting to within one point of Seward before Annelise Sanchez took things into her own hands with a kill to finish the set and give the Lady Saints a 25-23 win. 

                The third set was a seesaw battle with Seward and Trinidad going back and forth for the early stretch of the set.  The set was tied 6-6 before a rotation error call on the Trojans gave the Lady Saints a one point lead 7-6.  Trinidad led 13-11 later on but a kill from Carolina Freitas and a solo block, one of four, from Sanchez tied the set back up, this time at 13.  The set was still tied at 17 when back to back Lady Saint errors jumpstarted a mini 3-0 run for Trinidad to take a 20-17 lead but Seward kept clawing and scored the next two to cut the Trojan lead to 20-19.  Smelling the chance of victory for the first time in the early season, the Lady Saints finished with a flurry, scoring six of the final eight points of the set to come away with a  25-22 third set win to sweep the match 3-0.  Seward won the third set despite finishing with just a .030 hitting percentage as a team, getting just 8 kills with 7 errors in the set. 

                By looking solely at the stat sheet, you wouldn't have guessed it would have been a three set sweep for the Lady Saints.  Seward hit just .169 overall as a team in the match and again were bitten by the error but, committing 34 in the match including 17 hitting errors.  Gasparini and Riley led Seward with 8 kills each while Miller paced the club with 21 assists and Sanchez led the back row with 10 digs.  The Lady Saints did have 8 aces in the game including 4 from Kelci Bedingfield, 2 from Gasparini and 1 each from Miller and Sanchez. 

SEWARD COUNTY/TRINIDAD STATE BOX SCORE

                The Lady Saints faced their largest task of the weekend in their final match as they squared off against Laramie County in the Lamar Community Building.  It was a dreadfully slow start for Seward in the first as they fell behind immediately 6-0 to continue their trend of delayed reactions at the start of a set.  However, as they had all weekend, the Lady Saints continued to fight and came right back to score the next six points to tie it up 6-6.  The set was still tied later on, this time at 11 when the Lady Saints rolled off four straight points to take their first lead of the contest 15-11.  The push for the Lady Saints continued as they opened their lead to 21-15, but Laramie showed a little bit of fight themselves, crawling back to within three at 22-19 to force Luallen to call a timeout to talk things over.  With their lead cut to just two at 23-21, Seward turned to their veteran on the outside, Annelise Sanchez, and Sanchez answered the call, getting a kill to give Seward set point and then another to clinch it to give the Lady Saints a 25-21 win to take the 1-0 lead.   

                The second set was a nip and tuck affair early with neither team able to get any footing for an early run.  The set was tied at 9 and remained deadlocked midway through at 13 before three straight Seward County points gave them a 16-13 lead.  The Lady Saints still looked in control, up 18-16, but four straight points from Laramie erased their lead and put Seward in their first hole of the set 20-18.  Seward answered the Eagles 4-0 run with one of their own to take a 22-20 lead and still with a two point lead later on 24-22, they went to another sophomore in Morgan Riley with the set on the line and Riley delivered a thunderous swing for a kill to give the Lady Saints the second set 25-22.  Offensively the set might have been the best all weekend for Seward.  The Lady Saints finished the set with 15 kills and just two errors, posting a .351 hitting percentage on 37 swings. 

                It was yet another crawl for Seward at the start of the third set as right away the Lady Saints found themselves down 8-2.  Down by the same spread halfway home in the third set, a solo block from Riley and a kill on the outside from Sanchez got the Lady Saints to within four at 12-8.  Seward continued to push and crept back into the game before a kill from Gasparini drew them even at 16-16.  Neither team was willing to give up ground at that point and they went back and forth to 22-22 late in the set.  With their backs to the wall, the Eagles brought out their talons to score the final three points of the set and lived to play another set with a 25-22 win. 

                The even play continued into the fourth set where the teams were tied at 6 before a point by the Lady Saints broke the deadlock to put them in front slightly 7-6.  Seward extended upon their lead as the set got going, taking a 15-12 lead before back to back aces from Gaparini gave them a grip on the set up 17-12.  The serving from Gasparini took the life out of the Eagles as Seward took complete control of the period from there on out.  The Lady Saints stretched their lead to 20-14 and finished with authority, downing Laramie County 25-18 to take the set and the match 3-1. 

                Seward finished the match hitting .254, far and away their best team hitting percentage of the weekend.  Gasparini and Sanchez did the bulk of the damage for the Lady Saints offense as Gasparini finished the match with 19 kills and a .359 hitting percentage while Sanchez connected on 13 kills and ended the win hitting .333.  Sanchez had a big match overall, adding 12 digs, 4 aces, and 3 blocks to her 13 kills.  Miller posted an early career high of 38 assists in the win while Bedingfield once again paced Seward with 21 digs. 

                The win over Laramie was career win number 400 for Lady Saints Head Coach Bert Luallen who said afterwards to his team "I am so happy that it was this group of young ladies that I get to share this moment with."  The team then signed a golden ball for Luallen and gave their congratulations to the 9^th year head man. 

SEWARD COUNTY/LARAMIE COUNTY BOX SCORE

                The two wins Saturday draw the Lady Saints back to an even .500 at 2-2 after opening weekend.  Seward will now return to the friendly confines of the Greenhouse where they will take on Cloud County Wednesday night for both their home opener and Jayhawk West Conference opener.  The Lady Saints and Lady T-Birds will have first serve at 6:30.