Dragons Firepower Too Much For Lady Saints

A much anticipated matchup with rival Hutchinson in the Sports Arena quickly turned into a disappointing start to the weekend for the Seward County Lady Saints Friday night.  The Lady Dragons took the first set 25-19 and blew out Seward 25-10 in the second before wrapping up the sweep with a 25-21 win in the third to take the match 3-0 and send the Lady Saints home licking their wounds.  

                Hutchinson got off to the better start to the first, opening the match with a 6-3 lead, but the Lady Saints battled back later on to tie the set at 7.  The Dragons won the race to 15 points as they led Seward 15-12 and blew the set open, going in front 21-13 later on.  The Lady Saints closed the set more competitively, but it was too much Hutchinson in the first as the Dragons went on to win 25-19. 

                Seward stumbled out of the gates again in the second set and quickly found themselves in an 11-4 hole.  The poor start was too much to overcome for the Lady Saints as their deficit continued to grow to 15-7 and then 21-8 before the Dragons mercifully ended the set 25-10 to take a 2-0 lead.  Seward didn't help their own cause in the second set defeat as the Lady Saints finished with 8 hitting errors and ended the set with a -.067 hitting percentage. 

                The Lady Saints and Lady Dragons played even through the first 14 points of the third set as they were tied at 7.  Hutchinson went on a mini 3-1 run to take an 11-8 lead before three straight Seward points knotted things back up at 11.  The Lady Saints took their first lead of the match at 12-11 but it was short-lived as the Dragons came back to take the lead back at 15-13 midway through the set and opened their lead to 20-17 later on in the set.  Seward closed the gap to two at 22-20 but came up short in the end as Hutch ended the set on another 3-1 run to win the set 25-21 and take the match 3-0. 

                As expected, the numbers were not sparkling for the Lady Saints in the defeat.  Seward finished the match hitting just .083 as a team and had just three players end the night with a positive hitting percentage.  Annelise Sanchez led the Lady Saints with 10 kills while Carolina Gasparini was second on the team with 6.  No other Seward hitter had more than 3 kills in the loss.  Kari Anderson led the Seward back row with 18 digs and three Lady Saints shared the team lead in blocks with 2 apiece. 

                The Lady Saints fall back to .500 at 11-11 overall and see their Jayhawk West mark drop to 4-2 while Hutchinson picks up the key win, improving to 12-6 overall and 5-1 in league action.