Trey Burnett
MCCOOK, Neb. – Seward County volleyball faced a stiff test at the McCook Invitational over the weekend taking on a ranked foe in No. 7 Indian Hills as well as tried and tested foes in North Platte, Iowa Western and North Central Texas.
The Saints (3-4) went 1-3 in the tournament with a win over NCTC on Saturday and losses to North Platte and Iowa Western on Friday and No. 7 Indian Hills on Saturday.
Seward now turns its attention to its home and conference opener on Wednesday, Sept. 3rd, as Butler visits The Greenhouse for a 6 p.m. start.
North Platte 3, Seward 1
After defeating NPCC in five sets at the NPCC Tournament just a few days before, the Knights got the best of the Saints on Friday in the McCook Invitational opener, 3-1.
Seward managed just a .036 hitting percentage in the match. They got off to a good start winning set one 25-22 but set two was all Knights as they tied it 1-1 with a 25-13 win. Set three saw Seward fall in extra points, 28-26 and the Knights finished things off in set four winning 25-23.
The Saints were led by Mariana Silva‘s 15 kills while Mina Milivojevic finished with 10 kills and 10 digs for a double-double. Ana Nikolic had eight kills and 10 digs while Jhulya Carlotti added 24 assists, and Mireya Kawaguchi had 23 digs.
Iowa Western 3, Seward 0
The Saints battled with Iowa Western but came up short in three sets.
Iowa Western outhit Seward .283 to .186 to claim the win. Seward fell 25-21 in set one, 25-18 in set two and 29-27 in set three in extra points.
Milivojevic and Silva each had nine kills with Silva hitting .471 also adding seven digs. Maja Kobielska led the Saints with 16 assists.
Seward 3, North Central Texas College 2
Seward got its first win of the tournament in a five-set affair with NCTC on Saturday.
The Saints got out to a 2-0 match lead before the Lions stormed back winning sets three and four. The Saints ultimately locked down and won set five, 15-12.
Three Saints tallied double-digit kills while Carlotti finished with 41 assists. Nikolic paced Seward with 15 kills on .154 hitting while Milivojevic also added 15 kills and Nikolic finished with 14.
No. 7 Indian Hills 3, Seward 2
The Saints battled the seventh ranked Warriors to five sets but ultimately fell 15-10 in the fifth set.
The Warriors hit the best in the first and last sets, hitting .545 in the first set and .467 in the fifth to earn the win. For the match Seward was outhit .256 to .174.
12 service errors hindered Seward, compared to five from IHCC.
Nikolic landed 11 kills on .229 hitting to go with 13 digs while Milivojevic (13) and Silva (15) each had double digit kills. Kobielska had 39 assists to pace the Saints.