After a good showing in Las Vegas, the Lady Saints looked flat and tired at their home against the Butler Grizzlies.  Not only did the Lady Saints have trouble, but the Grizzlies also played scrappy. Although they did not perform their best, they still managed to come out with a win.

“I think we played very flat. We didn’t really click as a team but we were still able to come out with a win which is great,” Allen said.

The team had a series of errors and miscommunication throughout the game. Allen pointed out that there was no energy throughout some plays. They played well enough to win but did not play like a typical Seward game.

The Lady Saints struggled in the beginning of set one, but managed to keep the momentum alive and sweep Butler 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-14). Seward County advances to be 5-0 in the Jayhawk West Conference.

“In the beginning of the match, there wasn’t a lot of communication and we just didn’t really play like we did at Las Vegas. In some sets, some of our players would attempt to make a play but didn’t contribute. For example, some of our players would try to spike the ball but whenever they did, it would hit out of bounds. We didn’t have the same energy and there wasn’t really a unity when we were playing, which is very unusual of us. We’re going to focus to get better, we’re not going to focus on what we did wrong. We are just going to move on and improve as team overall,” SCCC Coach Thais Allen stated.

Set two definitely belonged to Giovanna Tapigliani. Whenever a Lady Saint set the ball, Tapigliani would sneak up to the net and spike the volleyball viciously, making her a deadly player. Tapigliani hit the ball so hard that the “slap” sound echoed throughout the gym. Unfortunately for Butler, their poor libero wasn’t able to respond.

Even though the Lady Saints had the lead, the Grizzlies still fought back enough to make it a close game. In conclusion of the set, the Lady Saints ended with 16 kills, 4 errors, and a .444 percentage, which was the best percentage out of the three sets. The final score for set two was 25-19.

“Our highlight for tonight’s game was our defense. We played with hustle, but we did miss some shots. We made some really good plays overall,” Allen said.

In the third and final set, the Lady Saints performed their best out of the other two sets. During the 8-3 run, Luz Sierra had three incredible kills, which gave the Lady Saints a 15-7 lead. Due to too many errors made by the Grizzlies, Seward County took advantage and ended the match at 25-14. In conclusion of the final set, the Lady Saints had 16 kills, only three errors, and a .295 percentage. With the victory against Butler, this marks the Lady Saints 12th sweeps of 3-0.  

“I think we played very flat. We didn’t really click as a team but we were still able to come out with a win which is great,” Allen said.

Although Seward County didn’t perform their best unlike some other games, they still managed to end the match on a couple of great highlights. Three Lady Saints; Domino (10), Tapigliani (10), and Viviane Viana (11), finished the match with double digit kills. Tapigliani was consistent with her attacks, hitting .500 on the night.

Giovanna Kuntze tied for her three set match high with 37 assists. Three Lady Saints; Domino (13), Kuntze (10), and Nathiellen Machado (10), finished with double digit digs.

“Butler was a really good competition against us. They’re definitely a tough blocking team, we had a hard time to get around their blocks, but overall they’re a good team,” Allen said.

The Lady Saints will head to Colby to compete against the Colby Trojans, who are ranked number 20 in the nation, on Saturday.