Lady Saints Dominance of Cloud Continues

To say that Seward County has had a hold on their annual series with Jayhawk West foe Cloud County is a bit of an understatement.  In fact, the Lady Saints have not lost a match to the T-Birds since the 1998 season, a match in which current Cloud County Head Coach Molly Skocny was a player in.  That trend didn't come close to changing Wednesday night in the Greenhouse as Seward hosted the T-Birds for their 2013 home and conference opener.  The Lady Saints dropped Cloud in straight sets in front of a good crowd that included five area high school teams to win their third straight match and move over the .500 mark for the first time on the early season.

                As they have all year, the Lady Saints had a hard time getting the wheels spinning in the first set of the match.  Seward fell behind 5-3 to start the first set, but found their footing and got back on track, tying the set at 8 before a kill from Annelise Sanchez put them in front for the first time 9-8.  Seward opened their lead up to 12-9 midway through the set and a big block from Kristen Anderson and Erika Gilbert kept them on top by three later on 15-12.  The Seward block party continued later in the set as Morgan Riley and Carolina Gasparini got into the act with a rejection to put the Lady Saints up big 19-13 and the gals in green had no trouble in closing out the set to win 25-18 to take a 1-0 lead.  With their offense slow to get going, hitting just .120 as a team in the first set, the Lady Saints relied on their block who had a season high 5 in the first set to come away with the win. 

                Using their momentum from a first set win, Seward jumped on Cloud right away in the second, taking a quick 10-6 lead to start the set.  After a timeout, the T-Birds stopped the Lady Saints push and scored three points of their own to get back to within one at 10-9.  Still clinging to a one point lead at 14-13, the Lady Saints scored four straight points to blow their lead open to 18-13 and forced Cloud to use their final timeout of the period.  The stoppage did not benefit the Lady T-Birds as Seward continued to roll.  The Lady Saints finished the set by scoring seven of the final 11 points to distance themselves even further from Cloud and finally to come away with a 25-17 win to take a commanding 2-0 lead. 

                Between the second and third sets, the Lady Saints honored the five area high school teams who made an effort to come out to the Greenhouse for the match.  Hugoton, Satanta, Meade, Rolla, and Liberal were all brought onto the court and given a big round of applause from the Seward faithful. 

                After the break the teams returned to the court and Cloud seemed early on to have gotten a second wind.  The set was tied at 7 before a kill from Riley put Seward on top by one 8-7.  The crosscourt shot seemed to have jumpstarted the Lady Saints and they pushed the score to 14-8 before a Cloud timeout halted play in the sweltering Greenhouse.  The teams traded points to 17-11 before the Lady Saints decided they were ready to celebrate a win with their home crowd.  Seward roared to the finish line, going up 21-13 before putting the T-Birds away to win 25-16 and sweep the match. 

                Offensively the Lady Saints numbers didn't stand out despite the 3-0 win.  Seward hit just .179 and had only 27 kills as a team, led by Sanchez who had 10 with the next closest Lady Saint at just 5.  Nacole Miller had 20 of Seward's 24 assists in the win and Kelci Bedingfield led the gals in green with 14 digs.  Blocking was the Lady Saints strong point in the victory as they accumulated 10.5 as a team including a rare triple block in the second set.  Riley led the Lady Saints with 6 total blocks while Miller had 5.  All seven Seward front row players had at least 1 block in the match. 

                The Lady Saints improve to 3-2 overall, winning their third straight after an 0-2 start while Cloud County falls to 1-4 on the year.  Seward wins its conference opener to move to 1-0 and the Lady T-Birds Jayhawk West blues continue as they drop their first conference tilt to go to 0-1. 

                Next up on the schedule for Seward is a trip to Vernon, Texas for the Vernon Labor Day Tournament where they will take on Division III #3 Brookhaven followed by North Central Texas on Friday and will battle former Seward Assistant Coach Alana Rowland and the Odessa Wranglers on Saturday at 9:00 AM.  Their last match of the tournament will either be at 1:00 or 3:00 Saturday depending on their results during their first three tilts. 

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