RUSTON —The East St. John Lady Cats trekked to north Louisiana last weekend for the Bear tournament at Ruston High School.

“We were undefeated,” ESJ head volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas-Nicholas said. “We played five matches and won the tournament.”

ESJ’s first match of the tournament was against Ruston High School. The Lady Cats slaughtered the Ruston Bearcats, 25-2 and 25-7.

The Lady Cats continued their success in their next match against the Evangel Christian Academy Eagles with two close scores — 25-18 and 25-21.

The Caddo Magnet Mustangs were the next team crushed by ESJ.  The Lady Cats overwhelmed the Shreveport school by scoring 25-3 and 25-5 in their two games of the day.

ESJ finished the tournament with two more victories against the Ruston Bearcats with both matches ending in 2-0.

“We played well,” Lucas-Nicholas said.

“We played hard, and our MVPs deserve to be recognized. Kalah Jones and Melinda Perrilloux really stood out and played their best. Jessica Scioneaux and Chardea Berthelot also brought a lot to the court and were obvious MVPs. On defense, we have Taylor Lipps, who was on her game and helped us win the tournament.”

The Lady Cats followed their tournament success with a victory against the Warren Easton Eagles on Wednesday. ESJ won all three games in the match with 25-15, 25-11 and 25-8.  Lucas-Nicholas said Kalah Jones stood out among her team with 21 blocks, 48 kills, 28 digs, 14 aces and 9 assists.

“I’m coming from a weekend of winning a tournament,” Lucas-Nicholas said. “I want us to just keep progressing and keep working hard. Our offense picked up. Our defense picked up. We got the ball where it needed to go and stopped it from going where it shouldn’t.”

Lucas-Nicholas said the Lady Cats need to work on consistency and discipline.

“If we can pull that off, we’ll do fine in District,” Lucas-Nicholas said.

SCC places second at Riverdale tournament

JEFFERSON — The St. Charles Catholic Comets volleyball team fared well last weekend at the Riverdale volleyball tournament in Jefferson.

SCC volleyball coach Meghan Ericksen said that out of 19 teams competing, the Comets earned second place in the gold bracket.

“There are four different brackets,” Ericksen said.

“Gold, silver, bronze and red. It was a big deal for us to get second in the gold.”

SCC played five schools in the tournament, only losing their last game in the championship contest.

The Riverdale tournament ended with a loss for the Comets when they faced off against the Ponchatoula High School Green Waves.

“We played two games against Ponchatoula and they won both,” Ericksen said.

“The first game was a clear win for them, but the second game was really close.”

The Green Waves scored 25-14 and 25-22 against SCC to assure their tournament conquest.

The Comets’ first match of the tournament, against Landry-Walker High School, ended in a 2-1 victory for SCC, losing one match by only three points, with scores of 25-11, 22-25 and 15-7.

For their second match, SCC played St. Katharine Drexel Preparatory School out of New Orleans. The Comets secured a 2-0 victory with scores of 25-14 and 25-15.

The Comets’ following two tournament matches, against Crescent City Christian School and Destrehan High School, respectively, finished with triumphs for SCC with 2-0 landslide wins.

“Our scores were pretty consistent,” Ericksen said. “We scored 25-10 and 25-15 against the (Crescent City) Pioneers and we scored 25-15 and 25-14 against the (Destrehan) Wildcats.”

SCC senior Maddie Murphy, center, received the All-Tournament award for her performance.

By Courtney Griggs