By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

BOUTTE — East St. John blasted out of the gates looking like a fired up and hungry team in search of its first district win at Hahnville on Wednesday.

But after winning the first game convincingly, the Wildcats couldn’t solve the Tigers down the stretch in three consecutive games. Hahnville’s execution in the endgame of each allowed the Tigers to pick up their first district win of the season, 15-25, 25-22, 25-20 and 25-18.

Hahnville ended their three wins on runs of 5-0, 8-0 and 7-0.

“It’s a mental thing. We need to get better at finishing games,” said East St. John coach Avingnon Williams. “It’s a problem for us many times even when we’re up by a strong margin … We let teams get back into it.

“I thought we came out with a lot of energy in the first game and it showed. But we couldn’t finish.”

Rebecca Robert led the Hahnville offensive attack with 23 kills. She added four blocks. Erin Hargis had 23 assists. Bailee Kaplan had nine digs and Harlie Kinler had four aces.

For East St. John, Allante Snyder had 10 kills and four blocks. Elizabeth Scioneaux had nine kills. Diranique Daniels had 15 digs and three aces, while Jessica Sanford had 29 assists.

The pivotal game may have been the day’s second. East St. John (6-8, 0-4) rallied from an 18-14 deficit to move to the brink of a 2-0 match-lead, building a 22-20 advantage. But Hahnville scored the final five points of the game to win.

A block and then an ace by Harlie Kinler gave HHS an 18-14 lead. East St. John regrouped to put four points in a row up, taking advantage of a few HHS return errors. Bailee Kaplan made a kill to push Hahnville (12-15, 1-3) ahead 19-18, but two points later ESJ took the lead when Ray’Neisha Page kill attempt sailed out of bounds. But after Diranique Daniels landed a scoring hit for ESJ, a serving error and then a return that sailed too long for ESJ tied things up for Hahnville, who outlasted ESJ over the next three points to claim the win.

“I thought we began to execute better,” said Hahnville coach Mendi LeBouef. “We definitely talked about passing out of our serve receive after that first game. It wasn’t allowing us to get into our offense and, likewise, it let them have a lot of free balls and get into some transition offense. We began to change that in the second game.”

East St. John surged out to an 8-4 lead in the third game; Leiah Turner, Allante Snyder and Tyrionne Deary each converted kills for the Wildcats.

A Page kill began to turn things around for Hahnville, making it 8-5. A Kinler ace cut things to 8-7, but the Wildcats put two in a row up, a Snyder kill making it 10-7. With the game tied at 11, a Turner block and two consecutive kills by Elizabeth Scioneaux pushed ESJ to a 14-11 lead.

Things went back and forth. Hahnville tied things at 14 on a Rebecca Robert block and took a 15-14 lead on a return error. Snyder slammed two straight kills to put her own team up. The Tigers again took the lead on a Robert tip and a kill by Page; that’s when the dam broke for the Wildcats, as those points sparked a game ending 8-0 run, including three aces by Robert.

“I thought we struggled with our serve receive. That was really the only thing I’d point to as a major problem,” said Williams. “They’d get a good server back there and go on a run.”

Said LeBouef, “Definitely, in the last two games, we served it better. It allowed us to get a lot of short points, and that’s always helpful.”

The fourth and final game flowed in a similar fashion. A kill by LeighAnna Rasco pushed Hahnville to a 15-10 lead, then a scoring hit by Robert made it 17-12.

ESJ summoned one last rally; a Snyder kill highlighted a 6-1 run that tied things at 18.

But Page notched a kill to put Hahnville ahead 19-18, and it again ignited a game-ending run for Hahnville. The Tigers surged to the finish, scoring seven straight points, including two aces by Robert.

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