Gasparini's Big Night Spurs Seward to Road Win
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Seward County Community College | 25 | 21 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
|
Cloud County Community College | 16 | 25 | 23 | 20 | 1 |
Seward County freshman Carolina Gasparini has had a nice start to her Lady Saints career, leading the team with 241 kills and ranking fourth on the team with 205 digs this season. However, Gasparini and her coaches still didn't believe that they had seen her best yet as Seward reached the midway point of their 2013 season. That changed Wednesday night in Concordia as Gasparini set career highs with 19 kills and 17 digs, willing Seward County to a 3-1 road win over the team right behind them in the Jayhawk West standings, Cloud County.
The first team that Seward and Cloud matched up this season, it was all Lady Saints in a 3-0 win in the Greenhouse. Seward knew though, that after the long road trip to Concordia, it would be a little tougher task on the T-Birds home turf. The first set was close early on as the Lady Saints got out to a 6-5 and then 10-7 lead. The Lady Saints remained in control up 13-11, but couldn't put much distance between themselves and the T-Birds as the score remained close at 19-16 later on. From that point on though, it was all Seward County as the gals in green stepped on the gas, scoring the final six points of the first set to come away with a 25-16 win.
It was a slow start for Seward in the second as it was Cloud jumping out to the 5-2 lead to start things. Seward came back to tie the set at 6 and then went in front 13-11 at the midway mark. The two teams were tied back up at 15 moments later and Cloud County took a 20-18 lead later in the set. After Seward came back to tie the score at 20, it was Cloud County's turn to make a late set run and they did just that. The T-Birds finished the set on a 5-1 run and knotted the match up at 1 with a 25-21 victory before the break.
Seward looked like they were in trouble as the T-Birds jumped out to a 6-4 and 12-9 lead in the all-important third set. The Lady Saints saw their deficit grow to five at 17-12 and remained behind by three later on at 18-15. Seward regrouped after a timeout to get back to within striking distance and tied the set at 19 before taking their first lead of the period at 20-19. The teams traded the next eight points back and forth to 24-23 before the Lady Saints put the finishing touches on a 25-23 win to go on top 2-1.
The fourth set was much the same as the third as it was Cloud getting out to the better start, leading 6-3 before stretching their advantage to 10-4 early on. Seward remained down by five at 11-6 before a 6-1 run pulled them back to even at 12-12. The Lady Saints really got their offense going with the set on the line and took their first lead at 18-17 and extended that to 20-17 later in the set. Seward was up just two 22-20 as the set reached its final few points and that's when the Lady Saints took their game up another notch by scoring the last three points to slam the door on the T-Birds with a 25-20 win. Seward finished the fourth set with 15 kills and just 2 errors, hitting .361 as a team.
Carolina Gasparini put Seward on her back in the win, banging down a career high 19 kills while also playing solid defense as she collected a career high 17 digs in the win. Morgan Riley also came up big for Seward in the middle, finishing the night with 10 kills and a .429 hitting percentage while adding to her league leading block total with 9 rejections including 5 solo blocks for the Lady Saints. Riley now has 98 total blocks on the season and 225 in her Seward County career, moving her into 10th place on the school's all-time list. Riley was not the only Lady Saint to have a big night on the blocking side of the net. Seward finished with 16 blocks as a team, their most all season, helped by 5 from Carolina Freitas, 4 from Kristen Anderson, and 3 each from Gasparini and Nacole Miller.
Seward improves to 13-11 overall, earning their 3rd road win of the 2013 season. The Lady Saints are now 6-2 in Jayhawk West Conference play, nearly cementing their first round home playoff match with the win. Cloud County falls to 7-12 overall and 3-5 in league action. Next up for Seward is the Ozfest Invitational in the Greenhouse this weekend. The Lady Saints will play host to Barton at 1:00 Friday followed by a 7:00 date with former Lady Saint Phooey Yang (Dan Yang) and Frank Phillips. Saturday the tournament will continue as Seward takes on Western Texas at 1:00 and Vernon at 5:00. Tournament matches begin at 11:00 Friday and will run through 9:00 with Saturday's contest going from 9:00-7:00.