By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE —  With a district schedule boasting perennial contenders like Riverside and John Curtis looming, St. Charles Catholic coach Kristin Sullivan wanted to test her team before its district opener Thursday at St. James.
The Comets rallied to tie its match with De La Salle Tuesday at 1 before ultimately falling to the Cavaliers, 25-12, 22-25, 25-14 and 25-10.
De La Salle was a Division IV quarterfinalist last season.
“They’re always a contender,” said Sullivan. “They hit hard and serve tough. Especially with the hitting, it’s hard to simulate what they do in practice.’
“We limited our errors in the second game and found some success. But we have to do a better job of generating points on our own.”
Jessica Porter led De La Salle (4-9) with 16 kills. Joi Johnson added 11 kills and Mallory Hefner made 13 digs.
For the Comets, Kaitlyn Lowry led the way offensively with six kills while adding a block. Alyssa Arceneaux made 18 digs and Brooke Tregre had 15 assists and two aces.
De La Salle surged out to an 11-3 lead to begin the first game and largely coasted to a 1-0 lead in the match.
St. Charles came out with resolve in the second game, with a Lowry kill setting an early tone for the Comets. Tregre made a tip to an open spot to cut an early Cavalier lead to 7-5, and a 5-0 Comet run eventually put SCC ahead 11-8. The Comets led by as many as five at 14-9 before a Porter kill helped spark a Cavs run to cut the lead to 14-13.
Another Lowry kill put the Comets ahead 20-15, then Tregre assisted her on a well-placed tip to make it 23-18. De La Salle rallied, a Johnson tip and then a Hefner kill that bounced off the net for a score to make it 24-23. But the Comets sealed the win on an Allison Savoie spike.
“We played well in that game,” said Sullivan. “We stayed up the entire time … but just after that one, we tend to have trouble keeping other teams down.”
“We made 11 hitting errors and four serving errors in that second game,” said De La Salle coach Alan Segal. “(St. Charles) picked up their play and we didn’t respond. We don’t have the volleyball IQ right now to figure out things when it starts to go sour. We need to start eliminating those mistakes.”
The Comets trailed 13-6 early in the third game before a Lowry block followed by a kill from Savoie helped cut the DLS lead to 14-11. But then Johnson slammed a kill down and the Cavaliers went on a quick 7-2 run to make it 21-13. A Johnson ace clinched the final point.
The Cavaliers took control early and never let up in the fourth and final game, running out to a 10-3 early lead and never let its advantage dip below seven from there.
“We talked things over after the second game. We at times have a tendency to think we can rest after jumping out to an early win,” said Segal. “We were better after that. We’ve got to look to play our best ball every time we step on the court if we want to contend for anything.”
Sullivan said a few strings of Comet errors were too much to overcome.
“We struggled passing today. A lot of that had to do with their serve,” said Sullivan. “But even defensively, we were locked in a times, then at others we made some critical mistakes. We hit the ceiling at one time and we never do that. We have to do a better job of adjusting within a game, but that’s something that comes with more experience.”
TERREBONNE BESTS SCC — The Comets rallied from a 10-1 deficit to take the first game at Division I Terrebonne, but eventually fell in four, 19-25, 25-21, 25-15 and 25-13 Wednesday.
Lowry finished with a team-high 13 kills. Brooke Tregre had 18 assists and Arceneaux added 21 digs.
“We’re not rolling over against these tougher teams,” said Sullivan. “We’ve been taking some games off of them, and (Wednesday) we did a nice job rallying after falling behind in the first game. That’s something we’ve had trouble with historically because we don’t have those go-to players. But I think we’re playing smarter at the net and that’s helping us stay in games.”
COMETS BEGIN DISTRICT WITH WIN OVER ST. JAMES — The Comets (4-9, 1-0) began district play with a sweep at St. James, taking a 25-11, 25-7 and 25-9 victory.
Maddie Murphy made six kills to lead SCC. Tregre had 22 assists and Savoie served seven aces.
“Getting off to a good start in district was great from a confidence standpoint,” said Sullivan. “We’ve got a tough slate in district play, so knowing we’re one up is the way you obviously would like to start.”