By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

East St. John’s Mariah Wilder slammed home her final, match-clinching kill with force and determination – an image that would have been tough to imagine if one had walked into the West St. John gym midway through the first game between the rival Rams and Wildcats.

But after falling behind 19-9 in the set’s opening game, something clicked for the Wildcats. The Lady Rams held off a furious comeback to go ahead 1-0 in the match, but East St. John carried its momentum over to win the next three games, netting a 21-25, 25-17, 25-19, and 25-20 win over the host Rams on Thursday.

East St. John (2-1) cleaned up its mistakes after their early deficit, almost looking like a completely different team.

“We just had to get ourselves started,” said Wilder, who totaled six aces, five kills and two blocks. “We got out to a bad start. But we kept our heads up, we cheered on our teammates. Nobody got down on themselves.”

Wilder said she wanted to make sure there would be no fifth game when she went up for the game-winning spike.

“I just wanted to finish off that last point. I was ready to go home,” she said. “I gave it everything I had, and just hoped it would get through.”

West St. John Coach Glenda Rush noted that a number of poor serves late in the match hindered the Rams’ chances of halting the Wildcats’ momentum.

“That’s what kills us,” Rush said. “I don’t know if it’s low confidence in themselves when they get up there. But I just told them to ‘do what you do’. Relax, serve, and if it gets over, it gets over.

“We’ve got almost a completely new team. We’ve still got some things to work on.”

Emily Heltz led the Wildcats in assists with 21, while also notching four aces. Tabitha Onebene added 12 digs. Chantell Bush had five aces and five kills, and Jasmine Marshall had eight kills and four aces.

For West St. John (1-1), Kyla Morris led the way with 10 kills, 10 blocks and 20 digs.

Morris is one player Rush expects to have a big year, helping to fill the shoes of departed seniors Tranell Mitchell and Destani Comminie.

“You can see how much she’s grown into it,” said Rush. “She’s coming along great, and plays the net really well.”

Shanea Julien posted 27 digs, six kills and five blocks. Malana Farnell had 25 digs, and Alisha Batiste added six kills.

Morris opened the first match with a pair of kills, and Talor Lewis added an ace to help WSJ go ahead 4-0. East St. John pulled within one, 7-6, but the Rams took off from there. After an errant Wildcats serve that put WSJ ahead 12-9, another Lewis ace propelled the Rams on an 8-0 run, making it 19-9.

But after the Rams took a 21-13 lead, the ESJ went on a run of its own, scoring the next eight points, capped by a Marshall ace to tie the game at 21.

Rush called a timeout, and WSJ settled down, scoring the game’s final four points to go ahead 1-0 in the match.

“We had to clean up all the little mistakes we were making,” said ESJ Coach Monica Hebert. “After the first game, we did that.”

East St. John carried it’s play over to the next game – the Wildcats never trailed, and led by as many as 12. With the score 21-9, the Rams cut the East St. John lead to six, 23-17. But as in the first game, the lead would hold up, and the match was tied at 1-1.

The third game was almost a carbon copy of the second. The Wildcats zoomed out to a 10-point lead, and never saw that lead dwindle to fewer than five points. Marshall clinched the game, and a 2-1 lead in the match, with a spike for the 25th point.

The final game began in something of a sloppy fashion, as each team erred on a number of serves. It was back and forth much of the way. East St. John led 22-20 before the Wildcats scored three straight times, including two kills by Wilder.

Morris said that despite the loss, her team isn’t that far away from making an impact.

“We played pretty well. We’re just missing something right now,” she said. “We’ve just got to figure out what it is, practice hard, and find out what we’ve got to do to be more consistent.”

East St. John was 1-1 this week before the match with West St. John. It fell to Riverside on Wednesday (see Riverside/St. Charles story for details), but won it’s opening match on Tuesday over Ascension Christian by scores of 25-10, 25-21 and 25-15.

Heltz racked up 23 assists. Nairobi Dennis added five kills and two aces, and Onebene notched 10 digs for the Wildcats.