Seward Busts Garden For 19th Straight Time

The Seward County Lady Saints continued their domination of Jayhawk West Conference rival Garden City Wednesday night in the Greenhouse, downing the Busters 25-8, 25-10, 25-20 in a swift three set sweep to move to 3-1 in conference play this season. Donning their 2008 "throwback" jerseys for the match, Seward got out to a 6-4 lead early in the first before stretching their advantage to 10-5 following a kill from Carolina Gasparini.  The Lady Saints continued to push, quickly putting the set out of reach as they went on top 16-6 and then 21-7 later on after an ace from sophomore Morgan Riley.  There was no let up as the set finished as Seward ended strong, putting the Busters out of their first set misery with a 25-8 win to take a 1-0 lead.  Seward made just 1 hitting error in the set, finishing the period with a .467 hitting percentage. 

It was more of the same for the gals in green in the second set.  The Lady Saints wasted no time in taking a 5-1 lead and in no time found themselves in front 9-3 after a kill in the middle by Riley.  Before Garden City knew what hit them, the Lady Saints were up by double digits at 15-5 and their lead swelled to a dozen at 22-10 after the Busters were called in the net late in the set.  Seward finished the set scoring three straight points and took a commanding 2-0 lead in the match after a 25-10 win in the second.  With Garden City errors mounting, the Lady Saints needed just 18 total attacks in the set and finished with just 6 kills despite a 15 point win. 

Seward jumped out to a lead for the third straight set in the third, but for the first time, mistakes by the Lady Saints allowed Garden back into the set as the Busters closed the Seward lead to 9-8 before taking their first lead of the match at 16-15 later on.  The Lady Saints flipped the switch back on and quickly retook the lead at 22-18 and didn't give Garden a chance to extend the match as they won 25-20 to sweep 3-0.  Seward finished with 13 kills in the set, their best mark all night and got 5 out of Sanchez on the outside. 

Even while controlling the match for the duration, the Lady Saints numbers didn't jump off the stat sheet at the end of the night.  Seward didn't have anyone reach double digits in kills, leading the way was Sanchez with 8 and Gasparini with 6. Nacole Miller dished out a team high 24 assists on the night and Riley led the Lady Saints with 5 total blocks including a pair of solo rejections.  Sanchez and Kari Anderson paced the back row with 8 digs each. 

Seward improves to 9-7 overall and 3-1 in Jayhawk West play with the win while Garden City's rough start to the 2013 continues as they fall to 2-12 overall and 1-5 in conference action. 

Next up for the Lady Saints is a long road trip to Torrington, Wyoming where they will take on Central, Eastern, and Western Wyoming as well as Sheridan on the weekend.