By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

WHITE CASTLE – West St. John’s volleyball season came to an end on Thursday as the Rams fell to No. 10 seed White Castle, 25-18, 25-22, 25-16 in the first round of the Region V state volleyball playoffs. .

West St. John (2-23) was led by Deja Feist, who had three blocks and three kills. Breion Sorapuru had three kills and Danae Lumar added 10 digs.

The Rams entered the match as heavy underdogs but hung tough in all three games. West St. John got off to a slow start in the first game, but made a late push to put pressure on the Bulldogs. In the second game, the teams were tied at 22 before White Castle rattled off three straight points to take a 2-0 match lead.

“We were close in all three games,” said West St. John coach Brandon Dumas. “We fell just short in that second game. If we win that one, I think things could have gone a lot differently.”

From there, White Castle put on the finishing touches.

The Bulldogs defeated West St. John back in September during the regular season. Dumas said the familiarity with the Bulldogs did help a bit this time around, but more of a boost was the Rams’ six game district run against top programs like Central Catholic and Houma Christian.

“Playing in the district we’re in, it helped us prepare for a team like this, the pace of this kind of game,” said Dumas.

“White Castle’s a good club, always in the playoffs and always going deep. I think we can be just as good and the kids were definitely ready. But it just didn’t fall our way.”

Dumas said that going into next season, he and his team know what needs to be tweaked to come back stronger.

“We know what we need to work on. This was good experience for all of our girls,” said Dumas.