By CHRIS KI NKAID

Pontchartrain

Newspapers

St. Charles Catholic’s Lady Comets swept the Pope John Paul II Lady Jaguars 25-16, 25-7 and 25-13 on the road Tuesday.

Pope John Paul (0-3) did a good job in the first and third games of getting out to early leads, but never could put things away to grab a win.

“It’s like I told them the other day at practice, we’re just that close and we’re not fighting to get it,” PJP coach Earl Gervais said. “We just got to keep practicing hard and keep working hard. We’ve got a lot of young kids. I’m playing some 10th graders, a couple juniors just starting to come into their own.”

In the opener, PJP led 4-3, but scored five-straight points to go up 8-3 and forced St. Charles to call timeout.

The teams exchanged points as PJP’s Kristen Calamari, who tallied five assists, came up with a kill to make it 9-4.

The Lady Comets (3-0) came back with seven unanswered and led 11-10, which forced Gervais to call timeout.

The teams continued to battle back-and-forth and it was tied 13-13.

But the Lady Comets took control and went up 19-14 before going on for a 25-16 game one victory.

In the second game, St. Charles Catholic jumped out grabbed early momentum and never let up. They led 8-2 and then 8-4. The Lady Comets tallied seven in a row on the strength of two aces from Emily Picciola, who had eight digs.

PJP continued to fight back with three in a row to make it 15-7. Elizabeth Calamari, who finished with three kills and two aces.

But St. Charles recorded the final 10 points for the 25-7 win as senior Heather Orillion served four of her eight aces during the spurt. She also added eight digs.

“We were down in the first one. We were kind of out of it, so we had to pick our game up and do good the second game,” Orillion said.

Lady Comets’ coach Kristen Sullivan said serving and defense are two of her squad’s strengths.

“We’ve been doing really good with serving,” Sullivan said. “It’s one of our strong points and our defense.”

The third game was similar to the first as PJP opened a 7-3 advantage. Ashley Loga capped the run with a block. St. Charles scored on a kill from Chelsea Loupe, who had seven kills and two blocks.

With things tied 10-10, the Lady Comets went on a 5-0 run to grab control. Orillion had an ace, which made it 14-10.

Martha Dewhirst’s kill trimmed PJP’s deficit to 14-11, but six straight by the Lady Comets upped the lead to 20-11 as St. Charles went on for the 25-13 victory.

Raven Becnel had 11 assists for the Lady Comets.

PJP’s Elizabeth Calamari talked about the match.

“We made too many unforced errors that should’ve been under control more,” Calamari said.

COMETS TOPPLE ECOLE — St. Charles extended their unbeaten run this season to four matches after stopping host Ecole Classique in three games, 25-16, 25-10 and 25-17.

Orillion led SCC with eight kills, 16 digs and five aces. Becnel added 16 assists. Loupe, Nicole Doming and Picciola each collected a block.

Sullivan said that St. Charles’ consistent serving and defensive play throughout the season has keyed the team’s early success.

“Offense is still a work in progress, but we’re improving,” she said. “Tough serving and defense has kept us in games, even when we fall behind.”

She said that after a pair of wins at home to open the season, it was important to match that effort on the road, where victories are tougher to nail down.

“It’s always more difficult on the road,” she said. “We’ve had a few slow starts now, but we build momentum as we go and get better. Now I’d like to see us start out a bit stronger.”

SCC began play in the Grace King tournament yesterday and will play a pair of matches today, at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Ryan Arena of L’Observateur contributed to this report.