St. Charles picks up win over St. Thomas Aquinas Tuesday

By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

LAPLACE – SCC volleyball was just three points away from sweeping Vandebilt Thursday afternoon in the St. Charles gym, despite losing Taylor Duhe to an ankle injury before the first game ever really got underway. But without Duhe in the line-up, the Lady Comets struggled to find an offensive rhythm in the third and fourth games and lost momentum, eventually falling by a score of 15-4 in the tiebreaker.

In the first game, Gina Monica opened serve for SCC and the Lady Comets jumped out 3-0. Katie Tregre increased that lead to 7-1 and St. Charles never looked back. Ashley Trosclair finished off a string of points from the server’s box to finish the game at 25-14.

In the second game, the teams traded side-outs early before SCC made a push with Meg Gustafason serving to a 12-5 score. Vandebilt would rally back to make it 15-12, but the Lady Comets used some good defense to close it out with a 25-18 win.

Vandebilt found some momentum in the third game to tie it up at seven apiece after Monica had served it to 4-0. Gustafason seemed to break their stride a little from the server’s spot when she kept the Lady Comets within range to a 10-12 score. Then, Brooke Becker sent down a kill from deep on her side that made it 12-14. But

(See SCC, Page 10A)

Vandebilt used a four-point swing to put themselves in position for the win.

SCC fought back, with a spike from Tregre and another from Becker who also scored on a block and from the server’s box in the attempted rally. Down 22-23 after a Monica serve, Vandebilt scored on a pair of side-outs to take their first game of the afternoon.

It looked like the Lady Comets were going to get the win anyway when they started out fast in the fourth game. Gustafason made it 7-4 with a picturesque block and a Becker block took it to 9-6. Monica and Lauren Coniglio each scored, with an ace and a kill respectively, that brought it to 16-11.

But Vandebilt rallied with well-placed sets and spikes to tie it up at 19-19 and made it to 23-19 before SCC could break the serve. Ashley Trosclair served her team back to 22-23, but Vandebilt snuck a set over on the second hit that was just out of range for the St. Charles defenders and scored again on game point to force the tiebreaker.

There, the Lady Comets had scores at the net from Trosclair, Tregre and Coniglio, but were down 3-6. From there, Vandebilt kept SCC defense on their heels, and allowed only one more point from the home team en route to a 4-15 decider.

On Tuesday, the Lady Comets came home victorious from a road trip when they topped St. Thomas Aquinas in three out of four games by scores of 21-25, 25-17, 25-8 and 26-24.

Monica served for six aces on the afternoon, to go with 13 assists to the SCC offense. Duhe added six kills in the effort while Becker recorded 16 digs.

The week of play puts the Lady Comets at 4-6 for the season.