By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD — West St. John split its last two matches in non-district play, defeating South Plaquemines last week in three games, (25-13, 25-11 and 25-19) but falling to Belle Chasse Tuesday in three (25-11, 25-6 and 25-10).

Against South Plaquemines, Breion Sorapuru had three kills, two digs and a block for the Rams (7-7). Tahjenik Howard also had two kills.

West St. John coach Brandon Dumas said that going into district play Tuesday, his team still has some things to work on, particularly given the upcoming competition: Central Catholic and Houma Christian, two of the Rams’ three district foes (along with Centerville) are ranked one and two in Class 1A power points.

“We’re not there yet,” said Dumas. “We still need to work on improving our offense, getting the ball to our setters more consistently. At the tournament at East St. John this weekend, we’re hoping to get better in those aspects. We’ve got some top notch competition in our district.”

Dumas said a positive from his team’s win over the Hurricanes last week was a successful shift to utilizing two setters, which he said helped the Rams limit “the traffic on court” and not put all of the onus on one person to set things up.

He noted that Belle Chasse stacks up as one of the better teams his squad has seen this year, talent wise, making them a good squad to face entering a strong slate of district games.

“They’ve got some great powerful strikers, the kind we hadn’t really seen,” he said. “I didn’t think we played up to our potential, though. We have some real talent on our team, and it’s a matter of putting forth the effort. If they have that belief in themselves and each other, and put in the work, we can beat a lot of good teams.”