By GEORGE MAHL

KENNER – The 2002 volleyball season came to an end for two River Parishes high schools Thursday afternoon. Both Hahnville High School and Destrehan High School bowed out in the first round of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Tournament at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.

The HHS Lady Tigers were eliminated by Dominican High School 15-2, 15-6. While DHS fought hard but came up short against Broadmoor High School in losing 14-16, 15-11, 15-12.

Hahnville versus Dominican

The Hahnville Lady Tigers, who entered the tournament with a 24-7 record, looked a little bit overwhelmed by the experience. Things got off to a horrible start in the first game for the Lady Tigers. Dominican took advantage of 6-foot-3 middle-blocker Stephanie Helgeson. The sophomore dominated net play throughout the match. In game one, HHS got off to a bad start when the New Orleans’ school jumped out to a quick 7-1 lead. Kills from Ashley Benoit, as well as Helgeson and Ashley Constant, a senior, put the Lady Tigers into an early hole. Back to back blocks courtesy of Helgeson gave Dominican a commanding 10-1 lead. The Lady Tigers were finally able to break a 7-0 run when Hahnville server Flora Brown nailed an ace. However, a couple of more blocks from the Dominican front court and game one would be theirs. Game two was much closer at the beginning than game one was. Two kills courtesy of Ashley Boudreaux and Brown gave Hahnville an early 2-0 lead. However, Dominican came storming back and took a 5-3 lead in the second game. The district 6-5A runner-up would come back and take a 7-6 lead thanks to the play of Boudreaux. Boudreaux’s kill, followed by a block, gave Hahnville a 7-6 lead. Unfortunately for HHS, that would be the last points they would get in the second game. A 9-0 run that culminated with an ace from Lindsay Randazzo gave the match to Dominican.

Ashlee Benoit led Dominican, 28-7, with 14 kills, while Tiffany Stafford was their top defender. For Hahnville, Flora Brown lead the Lady Tigers with two kills and was also the teams top defender.

Destrehan versus Broadmoor

In one of the more exciting games during the day, the Broadmoor Lady Bucs defeated the Destrehan Lady Cats 14-16, 15-11, 15-13. The first game seemed like a boxing match in which the Lady Bucs had DHS on the ropes on several occasions but could not finish them off. Broadmoor jumped out to a big 7-1 lead in game one thanks to excellent serving from Sarah Davidson. 7-1 quickly became 12-3 thanks to good to a block from Sam Adams and four aces courtesy of Jennifer Brunson. Then, back to back kills from Meagan Stock cut the BHS lead to 12-5. Leading 14-5, it seemed like Broadmoor was headed toward an easy game one victory. However, the Lady Cats started to chip away at the lead. A 14-5 lead suddenly was a 14-9 lead because of the play of Katherine Kain and Megan Legendre. With the game tied at 14, DHS all-star Atina Porter sent down a thunderous kill causing a small but vocal DHS crowd to leap to its feet. The kill capped off a herculean comeback by the Lady Cats. Another kill by Porter gave the DHS a 16-14 victory. The second game was just as intense and competitive as the first one. Two consecutive aces from Destrehan’s Arianne Walker gave the Lady Cats an early 8-4 lead. However, Broadmoor mounted a comeback to tie the game, 9-9. Another Porter kill gave the Lady Cats a 11-10 lead late in the second game. A 5-0 run, however, was all the Lady Bucs needed to send the match to a third and deciding game.

DHS led 5-4 when Broadmoor scored three unanswered points to capture a 7-5 lead. Two aces from Megan Stock and two kills from Porter put the district 6-5A champs up by three, 10-7. With BHS leading 14-11, Stock dropped the ball in between the front court and back court players for Broadmoor making the score 14-12.

The Lady Bucs, who sport a record of 19 wins and 11 losses, finished it off when Jessica Brunson nailed an ace to end the game, the match and the Destrehan season. “Our defense really struggled today. I guess it caught up with us this afternoon. They’re a little bit better than I thought they would be,” said DHS head coach Calvin Ike. “All in all, I thought we played well this season.”

I have nothing but good things to say about our team.”