After being competitive in a 3-1 loss to Catholic High to open the season Tuesday, New Iberia Senior High didn’t show up in a 3-0 sweep Wednesday by St. Martinville, according to assistant coach Kesha Brown. The Lady Tigers were never threatened in a 25-11, 25-18, 25-15 blowout.

“The team that we saw last night (Tuesday) that were in our jerseys was not the same team that we saw tonight (Wednesday),” Brown said. “I don’t know if they were some imposters, someone playing a trick on us, but that was the not the same team at all.

“They just showed up, they quit, they played like they did not want to be on the court at all.”

As a result, St. Martinville and NISH are headed in opposite directions as the prep volleyball season gets underway.

SMSH has opened with two straight wins, beating Delcambre Tuesday and NISH Wednesday, while the Lady Jackets have stumbled out of the gate with two straight losses.

“They wanted it more than us,” Brown said. “We came out and didn’t show up and they showed up. They worked for it and if we don’t work for it or fight for it, they’re not going to give it to us.”

Hard work is paying off in the opening games of the season for the Lady Tigers, SMSH head coach Lucinda Mason said.

“The goal is to just be competitive,” Mason said. “I have a young team and they are doing great things.

“We have a goal in place and we’re hoping to meet the goals and expectations of making the state playoffs and going further than we did last season. I have a lot of young people that are willing to work for that.”

Of the three games in the sweep, the first two weren’t close as the Lady Tigers jumped out to big leads and cruised to the win.

But in the third game, NISH finally came alive and took an early lead, eventually going up 7-2. After that opening flurry, St. Martinville roared back in finishing the sweep.

“That has a lot to do with keeping you composure and being able to play,” Mason said. “Even when we get into a rut, I tell them to relax, put the ball in play, make an easy play and then come back and run your offense.

“We did exceptionally well on the serves tonight and might have missed only two or three serves the whole match. We earned a lot of our points tonight.”

After producing some fairly good numbers in the loss to Catholic High Tuesday, NISH’s offensive numbers were practically non-existent against SMSH.

The Lady Jackets had only one ace and six kills with Destiny Johnson and Sasha Gilbert each finishing with two kills. Defensively, NISH has only one block, that by Swandeisha Gardner.

While the team had a number of digs in the contest, it couldn’t generate anything offensively off of them.

All of which leads to some possible changes for the Lady Jackets only one week into the season.

“I told the girls that nobody is secure on varsity anymore,” Brown said. “Whoever works the hardest is the ones that I’m going to put on the court in the games. We have Morgan City on Tuesday and we may have a whole brand new varsity lineup for that game.”

St. Martinville’s opening week continues today at Northside, followed by a trip to Baton Rouge for the Broadmoor Tournament this weekend. After having beaten two Iberia Parish schools already, SMSH will face Catholic High, Westgate and Highland Baptist later in the season.

“Sometimes it’s good to have to have that streak going, sometimes it’s bad,” Mason said. “Sometimes your players can get relaxed and think that they can’t be beat and they are indispensable, but that’s not the case.

“I want my team to come out smoking and ready to play. If at anytime your opponents see that you are relaxed they can creep and you can end up losing the match that way.”

Mason attributed a lot of the early success to the play of seniors Keri Fontenette and Ashely Jeanminette. sophomore setter Malana Dalcourt and daughter Raina Mason, who the coach said plays very well on defense and is coming around on offense.

“I think those girls are doing an exceptional job,” the SMSH coach said.