RESERVE — The Riverside Academy Lady Rebels’ volleyball team (24-14) finished their regular season this week on a high note — coming out third in a pool of five at the Dunham Tournament and defeating Haynes Academy (13-16) and Thomas Jefferson High School (18-12).

“We played Thomas Jefferson Wednesday for our last regular game,” Riverside volleyball coach Margot Frederick said. “We won in five sets, 25-15, 22-25, 25-22, 16-25 and 15-12.

“Our starting setter, Abby Bourgeois, was out sick that day. We didn’t have her and our usual JV setter (Carli Hymel) had to take the reins and I think she was pretty nervous. I know she was stressed and over-thinking things.

“The hitters were freaking out because she was spraying the ball all over the place. But we survived and that’s all that matters.

“We won our last game before playoffs.”

The Lady Rebels’ Thomas Jefferson victory followed a win on Tuesday when they defeated Haynes Academy 3-0.

“This was a match where I think we could have put them away with a little more effort,” Frederick said.

“In the first game, we were leading 18-3, but then we won 25-15. We are making errors and allowing teams to kind of hang with us when they shouldn’t be.”

RA defeated Haynes with 25-15, 25-16 and 25-16.

On Oct. 23, the Lady Rebels traveled to Baton Rouge to compete in the Dunham Tournament.

“Friday night (Oct. 23) we lost both of our matches,” Frederick said.

“We lost to both St. Michael and East Ascension.  Those two were probably some of our most disappointing matches of the year.

“I think our kids were not really focused on what we were there to do. They didn’t play with much effort.

“My perception was that we were probably a little bit more focused on our rivalry football game against St. Charles than we were on taking care of business on the volleyball court.”

Frederick said even though Friday’s games were a wash, the Lady Rebels earned points toward their Power Ranking.

“St. Michael is an 18- or 19-win team, probably more at this point, and East Ascension was up to the same, so even by playing them we get some points off the losses,” Frederick said. “It’s not what we had hoped for.

“We beat East Ascension before and they just pretty much pummeled us. We have a younger team and they are mostly juniors with a couple of seniors.

“They were probably gunning for us because we’ve beaten them before.”

Riverside lost to East Ascension 17-25 and 11-25. The Lady Rebels lost to St. Michael 24-26 and 14-25.

Frederick said the losses on Friday didn’t stop them from bringing their A game to the court on Saturday.

“We came out and played quite a bit better on Saturday,” Frederick said. “We beat St. John High School (in Plaquemine) in two and beat Brusly in three. That put us coming in third in our pool of five. It was a good bounce back.

“I’m sure our boys winning the football game helped that. We were actually able to focus on playing volleyball.

Riverside defeated St. John High School in Plaquemine 25-22 and 25-16. That was followed by a victory against Brusly, 18-25, 25-21 and 15-8.

“We had to follow that playing another third place team,” Frederick said.

“We played and lost to (Archbishop) Chapelle in our last game of the tournament.”

Frederick said she would be using the next week of practice to get the girls ready for playoffs.

“The last week we haven’t been our most consistent as far as effort is concerned,” Frederick said.

“That’s something we are going to focus on in the next week before going to playoffs. We’re going to challenge them more in practice and make their practice environment tougher than what they will face in games, especially now that we’re headed to the playoffs.”

The Lady Rebels are currently seventh in their Power Rankings and will have to wait until Monday to find out their final ranking before playoffs.

“A couple of teams still have a tournament to play,” Frederick said.

“We won’t be able to knock anyone out of the spots ahead of us because we don’t have anymore games to play. Right now we don’t have any control of our own destiny. It’s up to how everyone else plays this weekend.

“If we stay in the top eight, we have a bye week and get to practice for five days and then play the following week on Tuesday. If we win that match, we go to the Pontchartrain Center (for the State tournament.)”

— By Courtney Griggs