MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / September 14, 1998

LAPLACE – The Assumption Lady Mustangs have not skipped a beat since winning the Class 5A state championship last season, opening the 1998 season with eight consecutive victories heading into their match at St.

Charles Catholic Wednesday afternoon.

The Lady Mustangs made it nine in a row with a 15-7, 15-7 victory over the Lady Comets. Kim Willoughby led the way with 10 kills while AshleyBlanchard added three aces. Shannon Dolive had three kills to pace theLady Comets. Cristin Clement had two aces and Nicole Rome led thedefensive effort with two blocks as the Lady Comets fell to 3-2 on the season.

St. Charles Catholic jumped on top in the first game on a lift by the LadyMustangs and an ace by Marci Martin. After a kill by Blanchard broke theLady Comets’ serve, Assumption came back to take the lead behind Blanchard’s serving. Three attack errors by the Lady Comets, a dunk byWilloughby and an ace by Blanchard gave the Lady Mustangs a 5-2 lead before St. Charles Catholic took a time out.Assumption kept up the momentum after the timeout on consecutive kills by Willoughby and Jamie Gilmore to increase the lead to 8-2. After Dolivebroke the serve with a kill, the Lady Comets closed the gap to 8-4 on a dunk by Dolive and an ace by Clement.

The Lady Comets would continue to rally, pulling to within 9-7 on a dunk by Dolive and an error by Assumption. But again it was the serving ofBlanchard that helped the Lady Mustangs pull away. Three St. CharlesCatholic errors and a kill and block by Willoughby brought the Lady Mustangs to game point which they got when Nicole Scontrino’s kill attempt went wide of the right baseline.

Blanchard kept it going for the Lady Mustangs as the second game opened.

Blocks by Willoughby and an ace by Blanchard gave Assumption a 3-0 lead.

The Lady Comets closed to 4-2 on a block by Rome and Scontrino but Assumption came back with a block and a tip by Gilmore and a kill by Claire Melancon to increase its lead to 9-3.

St. Charles Catholic would pull to within three on an ace by Scontrino anda kill by Clement. But three errors by the Lady Comets with Blanchardserving brought the lead back to 12-6. A dunk by Willoughby and an errorby the Lady Comets made it 14-7. The Lady Comets held off match pointwith a block by Rome but Jennifer Bourg would end it a serve later with an ace.

St. Charles Catholic coach Michelle Dearmitt, whose team won its divisionin the Assumption Tournament over the weekend, said that the Lady Comets hurt themselves with their passing.

“We did ok,” Dearmitt said. “It would have been a much better game if thepassing had been better. We set and hit extremely well, but our passing iswhat hurt us today.”

Return To Sports Stories

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

Internet services provided by NeoSoft.

Best viewed with 3.0 or higher