By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

 

GRETNA — St. Charles Catholic attempted to rally back Thursday in its Division IV bi-district playoff matchup with host Thomas Jefferson, in many ways just as the Comets had done to reach the postseason in the first place.

But on this day, the Mustangs held off the Comet surge, downing St. Charles in three games, 25-17, 25-22 and 26-24.

Thomas Jefferson and St. Charles were the classification’s 15^th and 18^th seeds, respectively.

The Mustangs (12-17) advanced to face second seeded De La Salle in round two. The winner of that game will advance to face the winner of Riverside and Catholic-New Iberia — that game is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday at Riverside.

“I think my girls understood the importance of this match,” said Thomas Jefferson coach Emily Cormier. “They played with heart today.”

In each of the second and third games, St. Charles fell behind by significant margins before pushing back to take the lead. In each game, SCC held a lead late before Thomas Jefferson turned things back in its favor.

“We fight and fight, but we couldn’t finish. That’s been kind of the story for us this season,” said St. Charles coach Kristin Sullivan. “This team has come so far this season. We’ve been passing well and digging the heck out of the ball … but then we have moments where we lack focus and let the opposition get on a run.”

The final game saw Thomas Jefferson march out to an 18-13 lead before the Comets (7-16) roared to a comeback. SCC scored twice before a tip by Brisa Alarcon made it 18-16. A pair of errant Thomas Jefferson returns tied things up.

The Mustangs took a 20-19 lead on kills by Alexis Friedman-Benton and Danielle Sullen, then SCC went up 21-20 on a hit by Nicole Doming that Thomas Jefferson couldn’t return. SCC extended the lead to 23-20 and then 24-22 after a Mustangs kill attempt went long.

“They’re a good team. That picked up a lot of things (defensively),” said Cormier. “They found a few spots that we weren’t covering.”

But the Comets couldn’t capitalize for a clinching point. Kallie Glidewell slammed a kill, then Dajone Baker another to tie things up at 24. Glidewell scored on a block to make it 25-24. After a Comets timeout, the Mustangs secured the win when St. Charles was whistled for a double-hit violation.

“I felt like we just brightened up and came together to say, ‘Let’s do this,’” said Glidewell. “We started playing together again, hit our spots and cut down on the mistakes.”

While Doming got St. Charles off to an early lead in the second game by slamming a kill for the very first point, Thomas Jefferson scored the next six, including a pair of scoring blows by Baker and an ace by Friedman-Benton. A kill and then a block by Baker gave the Mustangs an 11-3 advantage. Thomas Jefferson led 16-8 after an ace by Brooke Carver.

But with Megan Ruiz at the serving line for St. Charles, the Comets ran off a string of eight straight points to tie. Doming was the star of the run — she slammed kills for the 10^th and 12^th points of the game for SCC, then dug a ball for a score and notched a block for the 14^th and 15^th. Ruiz served an ace to tie things at 16.

Thomas Jefferson took an 18-16 lead on Friedman-Benton’s kill, but SCC rung up four straight points to take a 20-18 lead.

SCC stayed one step ahead, leading 21-20 and 22-21, the latter lead coming on a kill by Courtney Snyder. But SCC wouldn’t score again, the Mustangs ending the game on a 4-0 run, things ending on an errant Comet return.

St. Charles led 5-1 in the first game before Thomas Jefferson turned things around. The Mustangs answered with a 6-0 run en route to a 9-6 lead. Snyder and Brittany Tregre each scored, on a hit an ace respectively to pull SCC within one, but a Friedman-Benton kill capped a 4-0 Thomas Jefferson run to make it 13-8. After a Snyder ace, Friedman-Benton scored another kill to make it 14-10; that sparked a 6-0 run, including three aces by Sarah Rees, making it 19-10. The Mustangs controlled things from there.

For St. Charles, Doming had 10 kills and four blocks. Snyder had 22 digs and Brooke Tregre had 22 assists.

The Comets started the season with a winless stretch that extended to the end of September, after Hurricane Issac forced the delay of the beginning of SCC’s season for a week.

But what looked to be a lost season turned around in October, when SCC won six matches to force its way back into the playoff picture.

“We’ve still got players who aren’t living at home,” said Sullivan. “They put on a tough face and say it doesn’t bother them, but you can tell. It would affect anyone … these girls learned how to fight back this season. They didn’t roll over and die. Their season ended with them kicking and screaming … I’m proud of how far they’ve all come.

“We’ll mourn the loss for a little while, then move on and start gearing up for next year.”