Trey Burnett
The Seward volleyball team treated Saints fans to a thriller in in The Greenhouse on Wednesday evening as the Saints erased a 2-1 match deficit to take down the Butler Grizzlies 3-2 (25-23, 19-25, 23-25, 25-15, 15-11) in five sets.
Seward (4-4, 1-0 KJCCC) earned the win in their home and conference opener while handing the Grizzlies (5-4, 0-2) their second conference loss of the season.
Seward jumped out early in the first set scoring the game’s first four points. The Saints made it 7-1 on a service ace from Milana Vukov and later grew the lead to seven at 14-7 on an attack error from the Grizzlies, the largest lead of the set. Butler trimmed the Seward lead to two at 18-16 and battled back-and-forth with the Saints to tie the set at 23. Mariana Silva landed a kill and Butler hit a ball long to give the Saints the 25-23 set one win.
Seward again built a 4-0 lead in set two and built it to 8-4 but Butler used a 6-1 run to take a 10-9 lead. A kill from Mina Milivojevic put the Saints back ahead 14-13 but it was the last Seward lead of the set. The Grizzlies used a 5-0 run with the score at 20-19 to tie the match 1-1.
Set three saw the Saints again build an early lead getting out to a 4-1 lead. The teams traded leads throughout the third set, but Butler claimed a lead until the Saints threatened cutting the Grizzly lead to one at 23-22. Following a Seward timeout, Butler scored the final two points to take the set and go ahead 2-1.
Set four was all Saints. They tied the match winning the set 25-15 and trailed just once when it was 1-0. The Saints broke it open when they used a 6-0 run when ahead 4-3 to make it 10-3 and later led by as many as 10.
The Saints carried the momentum from the set four win into the fifth and final set, leading 5-1 early following a Milivojevic kill. The teams flipped sides with Seward ahead 8-4 but Butler quickly cut the lead to two at 9-7 and head coach Jelena Cohadarevic used a timeout. Butler scored the next two points out of the timeout to tie it 9-9 but the Saints went on a mini 3-0 run to make it 12-9 as Mariana Silva slammed home two kills and Maja Kobielska and Annalisa Volpatti combined for a block. Another Silva kill careened off a Grizzly into the bleachers, forcing Butler to call timeout as Seward led 13-9. Out of the timeout, Silva again landed a kill that sent Saints fans to their feet for match point. Butler battled, avoiding the loss on two straight points but a serve into the net gave the Saints the win.
Seward now sets its sights on the Odessa College Invitational, played Friday and Saturday in Odessa, Texas.
