Garden City loses in three to Seward

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-There is good reason why Seward County hasn't dropped a set in conference all season long. Unfortunately, the Broncbusters found that out first hand on Monday night.

The Saints kept their perfect streak alive, taking down the Broncbusters in three sets 8-25, 13-25, 13-25.

"I thought we understood the game plan really well," Garden City Head Coach Patrick Hiltz said. "We just didn't execute it."

Seward looked every bit the part of the third-ranked team in the country, jumping out to a 16-4 edge in the first set-forcing the Broncbusters to call timeout.

"They're good; they have more firepower than anyone else that we've played," Hiltz explained.

Most of that firepower came from Yanlis Feliz, who drilled back-to-back kills to put the Saints up 22-7. That was followed up by consecutive Garden City errors that gave Seward the set.

"All positions, they can bring it pretty well," Hiltz said. "I like playing teams like that because it tells us where we need to get better."

The Broncbusters were much more competitive in the second set. Katarina Vojvodic powered a spike just inside the left sideline to put Garden City up 7-6. But the Saints scored five of the next six points. That was followed later in the frame with a pair of kills by Feliz and Mesalina Severino that put the visitors up six. They stretched that lead to 10 thanks to two Broncbuster eroors; then finished off the set when Vojvodic hit the ball out of bounds.

"I don't care who you're playing, if you make as many mistakes as we did, you're not going to beat anyone," Hiltz said.

In the third, the Saints scored the first four points. Feliz added two powerful kills, Ariana Arciniega tapped one softly over the net, and Dorianne Lebron swatted back a Broncbuster attempt to put Seward up 22-11. A hitting error by Meosha Erving gave the Saints match point before Thais Viera finished things off with a crosscourt kill.

"There were some positives in this match; I thought Ali (Alexandra Jackson) played really well," Hiltz said. "Every time she got aced, she came back with a perfect pass; that was pretty impressive."

Jackson led the way with 10 digs in a losing effort. Vojvodic had 10 kills, and Katie McHugh tallied 15 assists.

Garden City is on the road Wednesday vs. Independence. Match time set for 5:30 p.m.