RESERVE — The East St. John Lady Cats (12-14) didn’t live up to their winning potential this week, losing two matches they attended.

ESJ traveled to Gray Thursday to compete against the H.L. Bourgeois Lady Braves (19-9), but failed to secure a win.

Bourgeois defeated the Lady Cats 3-0. The match looked like it could go either way, but the scores — 25-23, 25-15 and 25-13 — show the Lady Cats lost momentum.

“We started off well,” East St. John head volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas-Nicholas said. “They served well. We started off with high energy at the beginning.”

Lucas Nicholas said if her team would have maintained that energy level through the entire match, the scores would have turned out differently.

“One thing we didn’t accomplish was finishing with that same energy that we started with,” Lucas-Nicholas said.

Lucas-Nicholas said she was proud of her players for trying hard, as evidenced by their stats.

“Melinda Perrilloux had 12 kills during the match,” Lucas-Nicholas said. “Sydney had three aces. Jessica Scioneaux had 25 assists, four aces, two kills and five digs. Kalah Jones had 15 digs.

The Lady Cats hosted the Destrehan High School Lady Cats (8-15) Monday in a home conference game. The matched started off close, but ultimately Destrehan pulled ahead to secure a 3-1 victory with close scores –17-25, 25-23, 25-23 and 25-12.

“Destrehan is a good district team,” Lucas-Nicholas said. “We started off strong, but we just couldn’t finish at their high level.

“We had issues with serving, hitting and sticking to the game plan. We were able to accomplish the things we set out to accomplish.”

“We have a tournament at St. Thomas Aquinas this weekend. The kids are looking forward to the tournament and we should definitely come out of top with the teams that are in it. We can compete at the high level that these teams can.”

By press time Friday, East St. John joined Riverside Academy and St. Charles Catholic at the St. Thomas Aquinas tournament. The tournament continues today.

By Courtney Griggs