RESERVE — It was an unsuccessful week for East St. John volleyball as the Lady Cats (14-18) were defeated 3-0 Thursday by the Hahnville Lady Tigers (17-17) by scores of 25-19, 25-16 and 25-19.

“I told the girls in the huddle that I saw some things I was really excited about, that they finally understand my whole concept of what I want to do with offense, actually passing the way that I’ve been telling them to since I’ve been there,” ESJ head volleyball coach Chelsey Lucas-Nicholas said. “I saw some positive things.

“On the downside, we really didn’t hit well. I think if our percentage of hitting was better, we definitely would have won that game. But everything else came along. We did well on setting. Our serving was pretty good. But you have to have all of it together so you can actually put the game away. Overall, I see some positive things going in but I’m upset that we lost that district game.”

ESJ competed in the Lutcher Tournament last weekend with fellow Parish-mates St. Charles Catholic and Riverside Academy.

“We won our first game of the tournament against St. Thomas Aquinas,” Lucas-Nicholas said. “We’ve played them before and won.”

The Lady Cats defeated St. Thomas Aquinas 2-1 with 0-25, 25-0 and 16-14.

“We won, but it was a lot of the same problems we were having,” Lucas-Nicholas said. “Just putting it all together. I believe that we could have challenged at that tournament and could have, overall, won it. We just needed to work as a team, not individuals.”

ESJ played their second and last game of the tournament against St. Charles Catholic.

The Lady Comets defeated the Lady Cats 2-1 with 25-11, 20-25 and 15-6.

East St. John followed the tournament with a home match against Thibodaux (15-14) Tuesday, losing 3-0.

“The same thing happened with Thibodaux,” Lucas-Nicholas said. “We didn’t stay consistent. When we traveled to Thibodaux, we went five games with them. They come to us and beat us in three. Where is the consistency with the team? I tell the girls that you can’t be that inconsistent. If we were more consistent, we would definitely be a dominant team that could compete everywhere.”

East St. John lost with 18-25, 16-2 and 18-25.

The Lady Cats have three games left in the season and will be hosting Eleanor McMain and St. Martin’s Episcopal Monday and Wednesday and traveling to SCC Thursday.

By Courtney Griggs