Lady Saints drop tough fought conference match

The Green House was jumping Monday night as the Seward County Lady Saints played the visiting Hutchinson Lady Blue Dragons. The Lady Saints fell in a tough battle, and the Lady Blue Dragons clinched the Jayhawk West Conference title.

Hutch came out in the first set and took the wind right out of the Lady Saints winning it 25-13. The Lady Saints refused to die, though, as they came back in the second set to win 26-24 and even the match at 1-1.

The third was the pivotal set, and neither team disappointed in their efforts, it was back and forth, but midway through the Lady Blue Dragons pulled away 25-18. The final set Hutchinson played like they were playing for the conference championship, and they blew the Lady Saints out 25-14 to take the match.

It looked like it would be a quick night the first set as the Lady Saints came out and quickly found themselves down 12-4. Hutch kept on building their lead and eventually found themselves up 21-11. Hutchinson never really struggled in the first set and continued to cruise to the 25-13 win.

The Lady Saints once again found themselves trailing early in the second set 11-5, but the Lady Saints step by step found their way back into the set with three straight kills by Carolina Gasparini and Kristen Anderson then had a kill to tie things up at 18. With the Green House as loud as it’s been all season, the Lady Saints refused to die, playing right with Hutch to point 22. Then a Megan Sharratt kill and then one from Thayna Silva gave the Lady Saints set point. Hutch came right back with two quick points to knot things back up, but then a service error would lead to their demise as Gasparini powered a kill to put Hutch away in the second set 26-24.

The third set once again didn’t start off well for the Lady Saints, and once again Seward found themselves climbing an uphill battle with a 11-6 deficit. After the Dragons gave away some points, Silva and Gasparini had to kills to even the game at 14. Then the Lady Saints grabbed the lead off of, once again, a Gasparini kill, but another Lady Saints error would bring the game back to a tie. Hutch then scored four points in a row for a 20-16 lead. Then another Seward error two plays later would give the Lady Blue Dragons all they needed to run away with the game scoring six of the final seven points and winning the set 25-18. This put them up 2-1 in the match.

The spirit in the Green House didn’t die though, and neither did the heart or effort for the Lady Saints. They quickly found themselves up 9-7 in the fourth set. Hutch would tie it at 11 though, but a kill from Alex Wood broke the tie and gave Seward the 12-11 lead. It was over after that, though, as Hutch smelled the blood and refused to give in to the Lady Saints.

Hutch scored 9 points in a row at one point and a scoring total of 14-3 on the last 17 points gave them an easy 25-14 set 4 and match victory.

The Lady Saints hit just .034 on the night, and failed to hit in the green in three of four sets. Gasparini was one of the only bright spots as she ended with another double double with 10 kills and 17 digs. Kari Anderson finished with 25 digs. The Lady Saints had just two blocks to Hutch’s nine.

Seward didn’t have much time to think about their loss as they were back on the court Wednesday, Oct. 22, at Butler, a team that surprised Seward in the Green House earlier this season. From there the Lady Saints made their longest road trip of the season to Hillsboro, MO to participate in the Jefferson Tournament over the weekend.

After their home loss to the Lady Blue Dragons, the Lady Saints faced a record of 21-13 overall and a standing of 8-5 in the Jayhawk West Conference play, where they sat at a fourth place tie with Pratt.