Catholic High looks for win in state volleyball quarterfinals
Published 8:30 am Wednesday, November 10, 2021
- Catholic High School’s Lady Panthers take on Dunham in the quarterfinals of the Division IV state volleyball playoffs Thursday at the Cajundome.
One demon exorcised, one more to go.
Last year Catholic High advanced to the state volleyball tournament at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner and was bounced in the quarterfinals by Pope John Paul II.
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The Lady Panthers again faced PJP last week and got a measure of revenge in a five set thriller that CHS won to again advance to the state volleyball tournament. This year’s state tournament won’t be held two hours away in Kenner, but 20 minutes away at the Cajundome.
No. 6 seed Catholic High plays No. 3 seed Dunham Thursday at 4:20 p.m. in the quarterfinals with the winner facing the winner of No. 7 Episcopal and No. 2 seed Notre Dame in the semifinals Friday at 3:30 p.m.
“It’s nice having it in the Cajundome,” CHS volleyball coach Gary Westcott said. “You don’t have to travel, you don’t have the expense of a hotel,
“It’s more of a standard, regular season game feel to it. Maybe a little earlier that we would normally play but it’s definitely an advantage for the local teams.”
The Lady Panthers enter the state tournament minus one starter in Sydneé Raheem, who suffered a knee injury three weeks ago. One positive for CHS is that another starter, Hana Maturin, has come back from a sprained ankle and is ready to go.
“I was going to play whether the ankle was broken or not,” Maturin said. “I fell on someone’s foot during a match and thought it was broken but it was a very bad sprain and maybe some bone bruising.
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“But I was able to get treatment and rehab it enough to get back on the court for the Pope John Paul match and I’m good to go for the tournament.”
The injury to Raheem was a little more serious and it forced Westcott to make some changes in who and how his team plays to account for the missing senior.
“We’re going on our third week without Sydneé and the girls are starting to jell with the new positions and we’ve had some freshmen step up and give us some valuable playing time and gives me more options on court.”
As one of the senior leaders, Maturin said that reaching the state tournament was a team goal this year.
“It was one of our goals,” she said. “We’re excited to get there but we’re not ready to stop. When we had to face Pope John Pual again this year we said we weren’t going to lose to them again.
“Goin up against Dunham is a matter of us just executing like we are supposed to. If we do that, then I don’t think that any team can beat us.”
Another player with confidence is setter Laura Lipari, who has come on strong this year and is threatening the single-season record of assists held by former CHS and Southern University standout Vaterra Calais.
“We’ve worked hard all week for the big game coming up,” Lipari said. “I think that if we got out and have confidence we can have very good results.”
Lipari feels that last year’s trip to the state tournament prepared the Lady Panthers for this time around.
“It prepared us mentally for what the event is like,” Lipari said. “With that experience, we’re going to go in more confident this year.”
That’s a point Westcott believes is true as well.
“Last year, it was almost like we had the deer in the headlights look when we went to the Pontchartrain Center,” Westcott said. “That experience molded this team and now they know what to expect and it won’t be as intimidating for them to play.”
