MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / October 5, 1998

LUTCHER – St. Charles Catholic used its height advantage to overcome atough defensive effort by Lutcher and win an intense three-game battle, 14-16, 15-12, 15-8, Thursday afternoon in the Lady Bulldog gym.

St. Charles Catholic improved to 12-2 on the season. Lutcher, whichdefeated Riverside Wednesday, dropped to 3-7.

It was a match where points were hard to come. Lutcher took a 6-4 lead ona kill by Breeze Vicknair and two St. Charles Catholic errors before theLady Comets rallied behind two aces by Kristen Clement. Lutcher surgedback ahead, 11-7, on a kill by Toni Riley and an ace by Candice Millet.

After a kill by Shannon Dolive and an ace by Nicole Scontrino brought the Lady Comets back to within two, Lutcher made it 12-9 on a dink by Holly Hymel.

St. Charles Catholic again rallied with Krista Danos serving, using a killby Dolive, an ace by Danos and two Lutcher errors to come within game point at 14-12.

But the Lady Comets could not close out Lutcher as the Lady Bulldogs’ defense broke three straight serves. The Lady Bulldogs then began a run oftheir own, closing out the game on a block by Hymel off Dolive out of bounds, an ace by Brooke Delaneuville and a kill by Delaneuville.

St. Charles Catholic bounced right back in the second game, jumping ahead2-0 on blocks by Dolive.

After a kill by Riley, a block by Hymel and an ace by Christie Melancon put the Lady Bulldogs ahead, the Lady Comets used two errors and a kill by Dolive to take a 5-3 lead. Lutcher again tied the score on a tip by Vicknairbut the Lady Comets came back with four straight aces by Scontrino to go ahead 10-5.

Hymel began another Lutcher rally with a block and a dink and Riley followed with another dink to bring the Lady Bulldogs to within two. TheLutcher defense then took over as a dig by Melancon set up a kill by Cindy Guidry and two Lady Comet errors gave the Lady Bulldogs a 12-11 lead.

After a timeout by St. Charles Catholic, Marci Martin started the LadyComets again with a dink to tie the score. Three service breaks later,Dolive delivered consecutive kills to give the Lady Comets a 14-12 lead.

Cristin Clement delivered the game winner with a dink.

St. Charles Catholic looked to quickly close out the third game, jumpingout to a 6-0 lead. Dolive had two kills and Scontrino had her fifth ace ofthe match during the run. Lutcher rallied, closing to within one on four St.Charles Catholic errors and a dink by Delaneuville.

But the Lady Comets began to pull away as Danos served consecutive aces.

Dolive then dunked a free ball at the net and Scontrino followed with a kill and a dunk of her own to build the lead to 11-5. Another dunk by Dolive, akill by Scontrino and a kill by Martin brought the Lady Comets to match point.

Lutcher refused to go down easily, however, as two blocks by Erin Hymel and a Lady Comets error cut the deficit to 14-8. But consecutive errors bythe Lady Bulldogs gave the Lady Comets the match point.

Martin led the Lady Comets offense with 21 assists. Dolive delivered 19kills and also blocked two shots. Scontrino served five aces and had fivedigs.

For Lutcher, Delaneuville had five kills and an ace. The defense was led byGuidry with 11 digs and Holly Hymel with eight blocks.

“I am very pleased with the defense,” Lutcher coach Denise Riley said.

“We are getting better and better with our defense. We don’t have theheight so we try to out-finesse the other team.

“The defense stepped up and kept us in the match. That was what won thefirst game. We gave them a good match and St. Charles Catholic is a verygood team.”St. Charles Catholic coach Michelle Dearmitt said it took time for theoffense to get started but that it picked up as the match went on.

“We started on the slow end of the slide,” Dearmitt said. “It took awhileto come around. The first two games we had no offense. The third game wepicked up and played more to our potential. Our hits started going in thecourt.

“The offense turned around and helped us be more successful in the game.”

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