MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / November 4, 1998

LAPLACE – It would not be Riverside-St. Charles Catholic volleyball if thetwo teams did not need a third game to decide the district championship.

For the third straight season, the Lady Rebels and Lady Comets will do just that, squaring off in the East St. John gym tonight at 6:30 p.m. todecide the District 5-IV title.

St. Charles Catholic (25-6, 3-1) forced the third game with a 15-8, 16-14victory at home Monday afternoon. Riverside (17-6, 3-1) won the firstmeeting of the two teams, 15-13, 15-10, Oct. 22 in the Lady Rebels gym.The first point of the game would be long in coming as both teams hustled around the court to keep the ball from dropping. After three service breaksby each team, the Lady Comets finally broke the stalemate on a Riverside error. Cristin Clement followed with a kill down the left line and a kill bySarah Weber and an Riverside error made it 4-0.

That lead would grow to 7-0 on an ace to the back row by Clement. Twoserves later, Riverside would begin its come back, using two St. CharlesCatholic errors and a kill to the back row by Michelle Millet to close to within 7-3.

An ace by Marci Martin and two by Shannon Dolive built the Lady Comets’ lead back to 11-3. Riverside again bounced back as three St. CharlesCatholic errors, an ace by Millet and a block by Amanda Roussel brought the Lady Rebels to with 11-8.

But after a timeout by St. Charles Catholic, a spike by Lindsay Trant andan error by the Lady Rebels made it 13-8. Weber then served consecutiveaces to give the Lady Comets the game.

Riverside jumped out on top in the second game, 2-1, on two Lady Comet errors. St. Charles Catholic bounced back, using a block by Dolive, a dink byClement and two Riverside errors to go ahead 5-2. The Lady Rebelsregained the lead, 6-5, on a block by Jennifer Smith, a dink by Jennifer Guidry and two Lady Comet errors.

The lead continued to seesaw as a dink by Nicole Scontrino tied the score.

Clement then put the Lady Comets ahead, 10-6, with two dinks and a block.

Riverside rallied to tie the score on a cross-court kill by Roussel inside the left line, a block by Amie Graugnard and an over-the-head volley by Courtney St. Amant that was tipped out. After St. Charles Catholic went back ahead on a kill inside the right lineby Dolive, Riverside took a 13-12 lead on an ace by Guidry, a kill by St.

Amant and a lift by the Lady Comets. Scontrino tied the score on an acebut Millet came back with a cross-court kill inside the right corner to bring the Lady Rebels to game point.

Trant broke the Lady Rebels serve with a spike and an error by Riverside tied the score. After a Riverside timeout, Trant killed a free ball andClement dinked the ball over the Riverside blockers to give the Lady Comets the match.

Comparing Monday’s match to the one at Riverside, St. Charles Catholiccoach Michelle Dearmitt said the team tried to focus more on the game than the excitement surrounding it this time around.

“We tried to tone down the excitement,” Dearmitt said. “We thought itwas distracting. We needed to focus on the task at hand and that was thegame.

“We had some big hits at some key times. Our serving was more consistentand our hitting was more consistent. Our emotions were just as high butwe were more under control. We focused more on the game than the hooplaof the game.”Riverside coach Gina Centanni said her team gained its focus just a little too late.

“They played it, we didn’t,” Centanni said. “They deserved it. We didn’thave our offense working. We didn’t make them play, they made us play. Wegot frustrated and didn’t get our cool until it was too late. We had to comeout strong and we didn’t do that.

“I’m optimistic. We are not out of it. We can still win it.Martin, Dolive and Weber each had two aces for the Lady Comets. Dolivehad seven kills and two blocks while Martin had 10 assists. Clement alsohad seven kills and added four digs.

For the Lady Rebels, Guidry had two aces and seven digs. Millet also hadseven digs and had a game-high eight kills. Brandi Falgoust led with 10assists while Roussel had two blocks.

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