St. Scholastica volleyball sweeps Northshore High

St. Scholastica Academy swept the Northshore Lady Panthers, 25-15, 25-13, 25-19, in a District 5-I volleyball match Thursday at NHS.

SSA (4-3), which did not trail in the contest, is 3-1 in district play, while the Lady Panthers (4-7) slipped to 2-2 in district.

In the first game Northshore played tough, but the Doves always had the advantage. Leading, 4-3, SSA scored the next two points on kills by Audrey Gitz and Christina Wurm. Gitz tied teammate Chelsea Champagne had three aces, while Wurm tallied three kills.

Northshore trimmed the lead to 6-5, and the game became a seesaw battle.

With an 8-7 edge, the Doves began to pull away, recording the next five points. They took a 13-7 lead and forced Northshore coach Sandy Blancher to call a timeout. It worked, as NHS put up the next three points to pull to 13-10.

The Doves responded with four consecutive points of their own and had a commanding 17-10 advantage. A dink by Northshore’s Tory Hearn, who finished tied with Catie Bates for the team lead with three kills, ended the spurt. The Lady Panthers tallied again to make it 17-12, but that was the closest NHS got in the opening game as St. Scholastica won 25-15.

The second game was all St. Scholastica. The Doves took a 1-0 lead, and NHS knotted things at 1-1, but SSA ran off six consecutive points and took a 7-1 advantage.

After the Lady Panthers ended the spurt, the Doves put three more points together on a kill and a dink by Shelby Fritscher along with a kill by Kristi Harrison, giving the Doves a 10-2 lead.

Northshore fought back and went on a 5-1 run, trimming the score to 11-7, but Wurm came up with a kill to take back the momentum. Wurm’s point began an 8-2 spurt and gave SSA a 19-9 lead and the Doves went on to win, 25-13.

In the third game, SSA got off to a hot start, but Northshore battled back.

The Doves began the match with a 3-0 lead and the Lady Panthers tallied their first point on a foot fault. SSA tallied the next two points and had a 5-1 advantage.

Later in the game the Doves had a 16-9 lead and appeared to have things in hand, but the Lady Panthers came back with a furious 9-2 run and tied the match at 18-18. During the spurt, SSA coach Danny Davis did not call timeout and let his team get through the adversity.

“I wanted to put the kids in a tough situation where they had to dig themselves out of a hole,” Davis said. “I told them in a timeout (by Northshore), I said, ‘guys, I’m not going to call a timeout. You guys got yourself in this hole, dig yourself out.’”

Davis added that he liked the way his team handled things.

“I thought they did a real good job of maintaining their composure,” Davis said. “When we get into a tight match or game where I’m out of timeouts, what is there to do? They have to step it up and they did.”

The Doves tallied the next two points and forced NHS to call a timeout. SSA allowed just one more Lady Panther score the rest of the way to get the sweep.

Harrison, who finished the match with a team leading 11 kills to go with two blocks, said she liked the way her team competed.

“I think we all just really stepped it up, we played our best and we played our game,” Harrison said. “I think we stuck together as a team and we played better than we usually have. We were pumped up, we had the energy and the motivation.”

Meghan Clark dished out 35 assists for SSA, while Sam Delahoussaye posted 16 digs and Camille Walther posted nine kills.

SSA coach Davis said he thought his club put together a really nice match.

“We were in control from the beginning to the end, which was very surprising because I know Northshore always comes to battle,” Davis said. “I told them we have to dictate tempo and don’t allow Northshore to get into any kind of rhythm.”

Davis said there was a lot of inconsistency play in Tuesday’s match against Slidell and was glad to see it get corrected.

For Northshore, Blair Doiron handed out 14 assists and got nine digs, while Alexa Hardy posted five digs.

Blancher said her team needs to play better.

“We have some talented athletes that need to step up, play to their capabilities and get the job done,” Blancher said.