LC-M takes down Lumberton in five

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LC-M takes down Lumberton in five

Van Wade

The Orange Leader

LITTLE CYPRESS — It’s been a wild District 22-4A volleyball season and the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears decided to clinch their second straight playoff berth in wild fashion Tuesday night at the Bear Cave.

In a year which has provided a ton of five-game matches, the Lumberton Lady Raiders certainly made the Lady Bears earning it, as LC-M went on to hang on to an exciting 25-13, 17-25, 25-11, 21-25, 15-12 victory to seal a postseason berth.

“It was a crazy match, but what can you say, all of the matches have been crazy in our district this year,†said LC-M head coach Vicki Castino. “I’m just so happy for the kids. Making the playoffs for the second straight year is quite an accomplishment. The kids really rallied together to take that last game.â€

The Lady Bears remain in a second-place tie with the Beaumont Ozen Lady Panthers. LC-M will play host to Vidor in its regular season finale Friday while Ozen plays host to rival Beaumont Central.

The Lady Raiders (22-13, 6-7) jumped out to a 7-4 advantage over the Lady Bears (19-14, 9-4) in the decisive game. After a Castino timeout, the Lady Bears caught on fire.

Senior Kristi Trahan served up six straight points and the Lady Bears received two kills by senior Jordyn Davis and a kill by senior Morgan Blohm to snare a 11-7 lead.

The scrappy Lady Raiders retaliated by scoring five of the next six points to draw even at 12-12.

LC-M grabbed a 13-12 lead after Lumberton’s Jelayna Jones couldn’t get a dink over the net. Lady Bear sophomore Christine Sicktich had a killing smash to make it 14-12 and Blohm then served out the match.

Blohm has had an amazing couple weeks for the Lady Bears and once again led them Tuesday night. The senior captain poured out 18 kills and three blocks.

Sicktich pumped out 16 kills, nine service points and two aces. Davis collected 10 kills.

Junior Brittany Wiegand had her amazing jump serve working well all evening, pouring out 13 service points and two aces. Trahan finished with eight points, two aces and five kills while Shayna Sheppard and Carly Gauthier had nine points apiece.

The LC-M win offset a tremendous effort by the Lady Raiders. Laurie Abbo paced the Lumberton attack with 13 kills and two blocks. Nicole Kemp collected 12 kills and two blocks. Alyssa Valastro pumped out seven kills and seven points. Alicia Allen had 10 points and two aces. Jones finished with seven points and five kills while Laura Chapman added five points and four kills.

The Lady Bears clobbered the Lady Raiders in Game One, tallying 14 of the first 16 points as Blohm and Sicktich were firing away bombs and the Lady Raiders hurt themselves with a slew of unforced errors.

Lumberton dug itself out of a 12-9 deficit in Game Two by going on a 6-0 run to go up 15-12. LC-M got as close as 16-15 but Lumberton ripped off nine out of the last 11 points by the hard hitting of Abbo and Kemp to pull away.

LC-M was in complete command of Game Three and ran away from the Lady Raiders with 11 of the game’s final 13 points.

It was the Lady Raiders that broke away from a 10-10 tie in Game Four by collecting nine out of 10 points to go up big at 19-11. LC-M scrapped right back and got as close as 24-21 before Kemp sealed it with a kill to force the decisive Game Five.

“We played so well in the first and third games, some of the best volleyball we’ve played this season,†Castino said. “In the second and fourth games, I thought we relaxed too much and committed errors we usually don’t commit. Give Lumberton credit though, they play really hard.â€