Lady Saints Can't Get Over the Hump In Loss to Colby

It was a night of missed opportunities for the Seward County Lady Saints Tuesday in Colby.  Taking on the conference leading Lady Trojans, Seward came out like gangbusters in the first, winning 25-22, but Colby answered with 25-15 wins in the second and third sets to take a 2-1 lead.  In the third Seward fought back, forcing a deciding fifth set with a 25-23 win and it looked like the Lady Saints might pull off the upset in the fifth before Colby scored the final four points of the set to win 15-10 and take the match 3-2. 

                In the toughest road environment in the Jayhawk Conference to play in, the Lady Saints got off to a good start in the first set.  Seward jumped out to an 8-4 lead, taking advantage of six straight Colby errors to take control of the set right away.  The Lady Saints block then revved up its play at the net to extend their lead.  Morgan Riley combined on a pair of blocks with Carolina Gasparini and another with Nacole Miller to stretch the Seward lead to 14-7.  The Lady Saints went up double digits at 21-11 and stayed up by 10 at 23-13 when Colby made their biggest push of the set. The Trojans scored 9 of the next 10 points to make it a two point game 24-22 before Seward finally finished their set point opportunity with a block from Erika Gilbert and Miller to hang on and win 25-22.

                In the second set, the Lady Saints had the opposite start.  It was Colby jumping out to a 6-1 and then 13-4 advantage after four straight Seward errors.  Seward's struggles continued as they saw their deficit remain a large one at 17-9 later in the set.  A kill by Gasparini broke a stretch of 18 straight points without a kill for Seward to make the score 17-10.  Things didn't get any better for Seward as Colby continued to maintain their distance from the Lady Saints before going on to win 25-15.  Seward finished the set with just 5 kills as a team, 3 from Gasparini and 2 from Annelise Sanchez.          

                Seward again struggled to get out of the blocks in the third as a lone Kristen Anderson kill three points in was their only earned point through 20 points as they fell behind 15-5.  The Lady Saints had four reception errors and six attack errors to that point in the set while getting three of their five points from Colby service errors.  The set continued to be dominated by the Lady Trojans as Seward looked stunned.  Colby went on to take the set 25-15 with the Lady Saints finishing the set with just 3 kills as a team, including 2 off the bench from Sheree Ryan. 

                The Lady Saints snapped out of it in the 4^th, getting their offense going early with a pair of kills from Sanchez and another from Miller out of the setter position to put them up 6-3.  Seward remained up three later on with another Miller kill to make it 9-6 and retained their advantage to the midway point at 12-9.  Seward kept their distance from the Lady Trojans and built upon their lead to 18-13 until a service error stopped their momentum, making it 18-14.  The unforced mistake jump started a 6-0 run for Colby, causing Seward to cough up their lead and give the Lady Trojans a 19-18 lead of their own.  The Lady Saints came back to tie it up at 20 before the teams traded points to 23-23.  An attack error by the Lady Trojans gave Seward a set point opportunity and a chance to extend the match and they capitalized on the chance right away, getting a kill from Gasparini to close the set and give themselves a 25-23 win. 

                The gals in green scored the first two points in the deciding fifth set, but Colby got five of the next six to take a 5-3 lead.  The teams went back and forth to 7-5 before a kill by Colby's Lorena Rosario put the Lady Trojans up 8-5 at the changeover.  Seward clawed back to within two and a Colby service error drew the Lady Saints to within one at 10-9.  An attack error, the Lady Saints 17^th of the night, put Colby up two and that is the way the score stayed to 12-10.  Colby picked up a sideout to go on top 13-10 and a crucial ball handling error on the Lady Saints gave the Lady Trojans four cracks at match point with the score 14-10.  It only took the Trojans one as Seward was unable to get the serve back and Colby went on to win 15-10 to take the match 3-2. 

                Seward's production on the offensive side of the net was one of its poorest all season.  The Lady Saints managed just 32 kills as a team on the night and got 20 of those 32 from two players in 11 from Gasparini and 9 from Sanchez.  One positive coming from the loss was the Lady Saints blocking numbers which saw Seward record 9 blocks as a team including 6 from Riley.  Unfortunately for the Lady Saints, it was their error numbers that killed them in the loss.  Seward finished the match with 40 total errors (17 attack, 7 service, 11 reception, 5 ball handling) while earning just 43 points total (32 kills, 2 aces, 9 blocks) by themselves on the night. 

                Seward drops to 18-13 overall on the year and are officially knocked out of the race for the Jayhawk West title at 8-4 with two matches remaining.  Colby improves to 18-7 on the year and all but wraps up their claim to the Jayhawk West crown with a sparkling 10-1 record with three dates remaining. 

                The Lady Saints will have their longest break of the season, seven days, before taking the court again on October 22^nd in the Greenhouse when they host Dodge City for Dig Pink Night.  Fans are asked to wear pink to the match to help support breast cancer awareness.