Filipovic’s Twenty-Four Kills Helps Lady Saints Split Day One

Liberal, KAN. – The #10 Seward County Lady Saints traveled south to Texas for the Wrangler Roundup and played two games during day one of the tournament where they went 1-1 on the day behind twenty-four kills from Dora Filipovic, first being swept by Dallas College Eastfield 3-0 and then later causing a sweep in a win over Ranger College 3-0.
Game one against Dallas College Eastfield was a tough game for the Lady Saints through all three sets. Seward County went back and forth with the Harvesters during set one with the Lady Saints recording 13 kills on 33 swings with 6 of those kills coming from Filipovic but were unable to capitalize, losing 25-23 in the first which gave DCE a 1-0 lead.
The Harvesters had all the momentum in set two where the Lady Saints could only amass 6 kills in the set against DCE. Seward County attempted to gain momentum of their own when Keala Wilson sent a rocket down the line for a kill and a few points later Rafaela DaSilva and Lajla Rasljanin combined for a block but were unable to turn the tide as the Harvesters grabbed set two 25-14 to go up 2-0 on the match.
SCCC was able to hang on in the third against DCE matching them point for point through most of the match off multiple Harvester errors. Unfortunately, the Lady Saints still were unable to gain any momentum offensively as they recorded only 5 kills in the third and fell once again to DCE 25-23, losing the match 3-0 to the Harvesters.
Filipovic led SCCC with 8 kills during the match while DaSilva recorded 22 assists through three sets. Winiffer Rodriguez and Rasljanin made their presence known on the defensive side of the ball with Rodriguez recording 15 digs and Rasljanin scoring off 6 blocks.
In game two against Ranger the Lady Saints were finally able to turn things around offensively and took full control of the match from the start of set one. During the first Seward County was able to create their own offensive rhythm against the Rangers that was led by 3 aces from Rasljanin and 3 kills from Wilson to lead SCCC to a 25-22 win in the first.
Set two was déjà vu for the Lady Saints as they once again caught fire offensively. Leading the way this time was Filipovic with 7 kills on 16 swings while Clara Duarte recorded 3 blocks to secure the second with the same score as the first, 25-22 to go up 2-0 over Ranger.
Filipovic took over the third for Seward County to lead the Lady Saints to victory over the Rangers where she scored 7 kills on only 9 swings with a 77% hit rate in the set. Six aces from SCCC allowed the Lady Saints to go on an onslaught over Ranger and when Wilson and Rasljanin raised the roof that was all she wrote for the match as Seward County took the third 25-17 to sweep the Rangers 3-0 in game two to split day one of the tournament.
Filipovic finished the match against Ranger with 16 kills to give her a total of 24 kills on the day while DaSilva recorded 31 more assists on the day and Rasljanin dropped in 5 aces to help the Lady Saints wrangle the Rangers.
Seward County improves to 4-3 on the season and will return to action tomorrow in Cisco, Texas to take on Victoria College at 1:00 PM and Cisco College at 3:00 PM to wrap up the Wrangler Roundup Tournament.