Seward Sweeps Butler to Punch Ticket to Final Four
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Butler Community College (8-29) | 17 | 13 | 9 | 0 |
|
Seward County Community College (25-14) | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
One season ago, the Seward County Lady Saints were in the nearly identical position that they were on Tuesday night in the Greenhouse. A decided favorite in their first round matchup with the Butler Grizzlies in the Region VI Tournament. But this year, unlike last year, the Lady Saints took care of business, smoking the Grizzlies 3-0 in front of their home crowd to advance to the Region VI Final Four Sunday in Hutchinson.
The Lady Saints wasted no time in taking control right away Tuesday night, using an 8-1 run early in the first set to jump out to an 11-4 lead on the Grizzlies. They continued to hold a sizeable lead through the middle portion of the first set and after back to back kills from Belissa Guidotti on Butler overpasses, Seward was in front 21-14 late in the first. The Grizzlies used a pair of Seward errors to make the score respectable late in the set, but the Lady Saints got a kill from Maritza Mesa and an attack wide by Butler to finish the Grizzlies off 25-17 to take the first and go ahead 1-0.
Seward carried their momentum from the first set right over to the second, immediately jumping all over the Grizzlies 9-3 to start the action. Kills from Mesa and Viviane Viana put Seward ahead 13-6 at the midway point of the set and an ace from Jade Piper made it 14-6 Lady Saints. Seward didn't stop pushing there. The Lady Saints extended their lead to double digits at 16-6 and spread the gap all the way to 13 at 22-9 following a kill from Alex Wood. Two more Mesa kills late and a bullet down the line from Viana finished the Grizzlies off as Seward took the second 25-13 to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. The Lady Saints hit .579 in the period with 13 kills and just two errors on 19 total swings.
After trading the first four points of the third set with the Grizzlies, the Lady Saints dug their heels in with Megan Sharratt at the service line and the Seward sophomore, playing in her final home game in the Greenhouse, went to work. Sharratt rolled off 10 points in a row at the service line for Seward, including three aces to blow the set wide open 13-3 in favor of the Lady Saints. The Lady Saints continued to hammer away at the Grizzlies and Butler had no answer. A kill by Viana gave Seward a 21-6 advantage before finally a blast by Wood ended the Grizzlies season as the Lady Saints took the third 25-9 to sweep the match 3-0.
The Lady Saints finished the match hitting .367 as a team, their third straight match to hit above .300 down the stretch. The reigning Jayhawk West Player of the Week Viana put together another impressive stat line for Seward, finishing with 12 kills and no errors, on just 16 kills, good for a .750 hitting percentage, while also leading the team with 13 digs for her 6th double-double of the year. Wood finished her Greenhouse career with a bang, blasting 11 kills and hitting .429 in the match while finishing second behind Viana with eight digs. Sharratt, the Lady Saints leader in aces on the season picked up a career high six in the victory over the Grizzlies.
Seward improves to 25-14 on the season with the victory, matching its most wins as a program in the past six seasons. Butler ends their season a disappointing 8-29.
The Lady Saints advance on to the Region VI Final Four in Hutchinson on Sunday where they will take on the winner of Wednesday's Cloud County/Barton match at 4:00. The other Region VI Semifinal will feature top seeded Hutchinson and the winner of Wednesday's Colby/Pratt matchup.