Seward Pinks Out Barton in Regular Season Finale
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Barton Community College (9-23, 6-10) | 18 | 11 | 23 | 0 |
|
Seward County Community College (24-14, 13-3) | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
As expected, it was an emotional night for three Seward County sophomores on Thursday as they played their final Jayhawk West Conference match of their Lady Saint careers. The emotion ran over to the first set for Seward who hammered visiting Barton 25-18 in the first set and 25-11 in the second before holding on for a 25-23 win in the third to sweep the Cougars 3-0. The win gave Seward their 13th Jayhawk West win of the season, marking the most conference victories for the program since the 1998 season.
In front of a spirited crowd on both Dig Pink and Sophomore Night in the Greenhouse, the Lady Saints got off to a hot start in the first against the Cougars, opening up an early 6-1 lead before stretching that to 13-5 midway through the set. Later on, back to back kills from Alex Wood put Seward up 18-9 and the Lady Saints held that advantage deep into the set at 21-12. Barton made a push towards the end of the first, but it was too little too late as the Lady Saints cruised to a 25-18 win to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Seward hit .429 in the set with 14 kills and just two errors while Barton struggled to a .086 mark with 10 kills and seven costly errors.
The Lady Saints carried their momentum right over into the second set, jumping out to another big early lead, this time 5-0 and 9-2 to begin things. The Lady Saints took a 10 point lead at 14-4 on a block from Belissa Guidotti and Maritza Mesa and ballooned that cushion to 24-8 at set point. Barton scored three straight to reach double digits in the set, but that is all they would get as a rocket off the arm of Viviane Viana closed the Cougars out 25-11 and put the Lady Saints ahead 2-0. Seward was again efficient while Barton was not. The Lady Saints had 13 kills in the period, good for a .385 hitting mark while Barton managed just four kills in the set and had eight errors to hit an ugly -.125.
Seward switched up their lineup in the third and it looked to have thrown their roll off slightly. The Lady Saints and Lady Cougars played even through the first 16 points of the set to an 8-8 draw before Seward pushed four straight points to go ahead 12-8 at the midway mark. The Lady Saints continued to lead by four to 16-12 with a block from Kaysie Paxton and Lindsey Schwab, but a service error by Seward spawned a 4-0 Cougar run to tie the score at 16. The score remained deadlocked at 19-19 later on when a 5-1 Lady Saint run brought them to match point for the first time with a 24-20 lead. After failing on their first three attempts to seal the win and the Cougars getting all the way back to within one, Seward finished the match with a kill in the middle from Megan Sharratt to give them a 25-23 win to sweep the match 3-0.
It was a solid night for the Lady Saints on the stat sheet as Seward hit .376 as a team in the win, their best hitting mark in a Jayhawk West match all season. The Lady Saints got a match high 12 kills from Viana and nine from Paxton who hit a career best .727 in the win. Jade Piper handed out 24 helpers in the victory while Wood led Seward with 21 digs on the night. Sharratt led a nine block Seward defensive attack with four assisted blocks in the win while Guidotti and Paxton each had three.
The Lady Saints wrap up a solid regular season 24-14 overall while posting a 13-3 mark in Jayhawk West play, the programs most wins in a conference season since 1998. Barton falls to 9-23 overall on the season and finishes West play 6-10.
Seward finishes the regular season as the #2 seed for the Region VI Tournament which begins on Tuesday in the Greenhouse. The Lady Saints will host the 7th seeded Butler Grizzlies, a team that they defeated twice during the 2015 Jayhawk West season.