Lady Saints Strong Start Fades at Pratt

PRATT, Kan. – A strong first set faded quickly for the Seward County volleyball team on Wednesday evening in the Beaver Dome.

Seward (4-9, 1-1 KJCCC) led start to finish in set one, taking down the Pratt Beavers (4-5, 1-2) 25-14. Pratt proceeded to win the next three sets to give Seward its first conference loss as they fell 3-1 (25-14, 22-25, 22-25, 24-26).

It marked Seward's fifth consecutive loss after losing four matches at the Odessa College Invitational over the weekend.

Seward is now 1-1 in league play after previously taking down Butler 3-2 in the conference opener at home on Sept. 3rd.

The final three sets were all close with the Saints losing sets two and three by scores of 25-22 and the fourth set, 26-24.

The Saints outhit Pratt .197 to .168, but made 15 service errors to Pratt's eight and 22 attack errors to Pratt's 15.

Sophomore Mariana Silva led Seward slamming home 15 kills on .314 hitting also digging up 11 Pratt attacks for a double-double. Silva has landed double-digit kills in 10 of the Saints 13 matches.

Ana Nikolic tallied 13 kills and eight digs and Mina Milivojevic had 11 kills and nine digs. Maja Kobielska finished with 31 assists while Mireya Kawaguchi led Seward with 18 digs.

Seward is off the rest of the week. The next action for the Lady Saints comes on Wednesday, Sept. 17th, as they travel to Garden City for a 6:30 p.m. conference match with the Broncbusters.