It’s been said that it’s hard to beat a team twice in one season. Twice in one week is even harder, but the Seward volleyball team did that against Crete Oct. 13 and in the opening round of the Central Conference tournament Oct. 15.
The Bluejays got the win 25-21, 20-25, 25-22, 25-21 Oct. 13 in a regular-season match.
“This was a great game to start off our week. Crete came out strong and had an engaged student section making this a tough but fun environment to play in,” Coach Rebekah Miller said.
She said the Jays started out well in the first set, but got off to a slow start in the second. While the momentum switched back to Seward, the team still came up short. However, Miller said, SHS finished sets three and four strong to win the match.
All three levels of the program got wins that night, something that hadn’t happened since early in the season, she said.
“It was fun to feel success as an entire program,” she said.
Jackie Eberspacher led the Jays with 17 kills and three ace serves, and Carley Kimbrough added 11 kills. Taegan Weber delivered 28 assists, and Brianna Hull and Emerson Limback reached double figures in digs with 12 and 10, respectively.
Two nights later, Seward defeated Crete 25-19, 25-23 in the opening round of the conference tournament.
“Playing Crete again for the first round of our conference tournament just two days later is a bit nerve-wrecking, because we know they always play Seward well and it is harder to beat an opponent twice,” Miller said. “They had just come off a 3-set match with Northwest and were fired up.”
The Cardinals switched their lineup, starting in a different rotation than they had on Tuesday, but Seward handled the change well, the coach said. CHS switched from a 6-2 to a 5-1 set, which was effective and led to a closer second set, Miller said.
“We were very proud of our effort to adjust to this new lineup and come out on top,” she said.
Kimbrough paced the offense with 11 kills, with Weber delivering 24 assists. Limback notched 10 digs.
Match two Oct. 15 didn’t go as well, with Northwest getting the win 25-16, 25-19. Miller said Seward played well at the beginning of each set, but then Northwest made big plays and SHS couldn’t recover.
“We made a lot of nice plays in this match but just couldn’t match the power of the hitters from Grand Island,” Miller said.
Eberspacher led the team with six kills. Weber had 15 assists and three ace serves, and Limback picked up eight digs.
Competition Oct. 17 did not start off well for the Jays. Senior Hayden Minchow tweaked her back before the opening match and sat it out. That allowed York, Seward’s opponent, to focus on Seward’s outside hitters.
“We had potentially the best serve receive match of the year, which should have enabled our offense to execute at a high level, but our hitting efficiency struggled against a very sound York defense,” Miller said.
York’s outside hitters played well out of system, she said, and that helped the Dukes to a 25-16, 25-16 win.
Eberspacher led Seward with seven kills and Kimbrough added six. Weber put up 14 assists.
The tournament finished with a 25-19, 27-25 loss to Columbus Lakeview.
“This was by far our best match of the tournament, though we did not end up on top,” Miller said.
Seward was able to serve effectively and keep Lakeview out of system. Miller said the hitters struggled against a disciplined defense but still had a successful second set. The two-point loss was heartbreaking, she said, because the team played well.
“Our staff was proud of the way we finished when we could have easily succumbed to the frustration of walking away with a losing record in the tournament,” she said.
Seward (16-15) ends the regular season at home Thursday, Oct. 22, against Ashland-Greenwood. First serve is set for 7 p.m.
