Cooper’s 14 kills lead Lady Wildcats to victory at St. Charles

By BILLY GOMILA

Contributing Writer

LAPLACE – East St. John’s girls’ volleyball team improved to 3-2 on the season Thursday night by defeating St. Charles Catholic in Laplace.

The Lady Wildcats swept the Lady Comets 25-19, 25-22 and 25-19 behind a big 14 kills from 6-5 Ashlee Cooper.

Late in game three, the Comets closed a seven-point gap to pull the score to 24-19, but Darielle Sanders spiked the final point home to clinch the win for East St. John.

“Everything feels like it’s finally started jelling,” said East St. John head coach Sandi Stein.

Sanders led the Lady Wildcats with 10 digs, while Trenise Evans added eight. Diana Lainez and Ashley Givens led the team with four aces each. Givens added nine kills. Maira Harris led the team in assists with 20, while Lainez added another 10.

“This was our best match yet,” said Stein. “Even though we had a few episodes of laziness. The girls know what they have to do. They just second-guess themselves sometimes.”

With the loss St. Charles drops to 3-6 and will head to Terrebone High this weekend for a tournament.

“We just didn’t play to our potential,” said coach Michelle Dearmitt. “We were outplayed today.”

Lauren Coniglio led the Lady Comets with two kills. Katie Tregre led the team with nine digs, while Amanda Savoie had five aces. Mary Clement helped out with seven assists.

With non-district opposition still up in the air after Hurricane Katrina, both teams are still working on schedules for next week.