Lady Tigers go all the way to state volleyball semi-finals in Division I

BY KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

KENNER – The ride through the state volleyball playoffs was a glorious and history making event for the Hahnville Lady Tigers this year.

And even though it ended in the Division I semi-finals on Friday night against highly ranked St. Joseph’s, coach Mendi LeBouef and her Hahnville girls will not soon forget the success of the past year.

Hahnville won the district 10-5A championship this year, then won their opening playoff game to advance to the Pontchartrain Center this week where the state playoffs continued.

On Thursday, Hahnville won over McDonough 35 in the state regionals, 25-9, 25-15, 23-25, 25-21.

That advanced the Lady Tigers to the state quarter-finals on Friday morning, where they again came through with an outstanding performance to defeat Barbe in four games, 18-25, 27-25, 26-24, 25-17.

From there Hahnville found themselves facing the state’s number two ranked St. Joseph’s team on Friday evening, where the run for the Lady Tigers came to an end.

The season finished at 25-10 for the Tigers, and the state semi-final showing was the furthest the team has ever gone in school history.

“We were just so excited to have done this well and gone this far,” coach LeBouef said. “Our girls came to the Pontchartrain Center and played really well in the two wins. We just knew that St. Joseph’s would be tough.”

Hahnville-McDonough

The Tigers beat the Roneagles on Thursday afternoon with a strong performance that had them looking overwhelming in the first two games before McDonough won their only game.

Hahnville got 41 assists from Sasha Leach to lead them, along with 17 kills from Marquita Hill in the victory.

The Tigers roared out to a big win in the opening contest, then won by 10 in the second game. And perhaps that early domination caused a bit of a letup, as the Roneagles rallied to win their only game.

“I think we lost our focus a little in that third game, and maybe that was because of how well we played and won in the first two games,” LeBouef said. “This is a game of momentum and we had it early on. But I was happy with the way the girls came back and won the third game to put it away.”

Hahnville-Barbe

The Friday morning matchup in the state quarter-finals presented a tougher challenge for Hahnville, but the Lady Tigers obviously came to play and looked strong all the way in taking the big win.

“We knew Barbe would be tough and I think the girls showed that they really came to play,” the Tiger coach noted. “We didn’t pass our best in the first game when they won, but after that the girls really played well all around.”

Barbe took the first game 25-18 and looked like they might be taking command of the match when they went up 9-5 in the second game.

But Hahnville never let up, battling back to finally tie the game at 20-20 after a four point run.

The match got especially interesting when it looked like Hahnville had won 25-23, but the officials said there had been a scoring error and instead, called the match tied at 24-all.

However Hahnville didn’t let the setback get them down as they battled again, finally winning 27-25.

“I thought that was really important the way we kept a level head when they took the win away from us, but we still came back to win again. That really gave us some momentum from there until the end,” she added.

Indeed, Hahnville seemed to use that big victory that tied the match at 1-1 as the boost they needed, roaring away to win the final two games.

In game three, some big kills from Whitney Scott led the way as Hahnville finally broke open a close game to score the final four points of the contest and win.

In game four, the Tigers maintained their psychological edge, keeping Barbe down from the start as they used a four point run mid-way through the contest to take charge for good. A pair of aces from Hill boosted the Tigers to a 17-11 lead that they never allowed to be threatened.

Hahnville put the match away with the final four points to win as Hill had a key block and kill, with Shunta Isaac adding a kill to clinch the victory.

Leach had 37 assists to again lead the team, while Ashonte Pryer had 12 kills. Kaswana Isaac topped the team with eight digs, Soctt had three blocks and hill had six aces.