MCHS beats Evangel; will face No. 1 Teurlings

The Morgan City Lady Tigers’ serving wasn’t perfect.
But it was good enough.
And when the Lady Tigers weren’t connecting on one of their 18 aces, they were using the net play of Jaivieanna Jones and Brandi Ingram, and Evangel Christian errors to capitalize on their visitors from Shreveport.
The end result: a 25-14, 25-16, 25-17 Morgan City win.
While the Lady Tigers had a good day in the ace department, led by seven from the powerful serve of Ingram and five and four more from Taylor Prince and Marilynn Bailey, respectively, the Lady Tigers did have some problems at the service line as Morgan City missed 11 serves.
Still, Morgan City head coach Christy Theriot said her squad performed better than it had during much of the season in that Thursday they avoided missing serves after big plays.  
“They served well today,” Theriot said. “We made a few missed serves but they were able to key on some weak spots in their serve reception, so that definitely picked up.”
In the first game, Morgan City took the set after using a 14-5 run near the midway point of the game to take the game.
    The run included a combination of Morgan City kills, aces and Evangel Christian errors.
    A kill by Ingram and an ace by Kloe Liner gave Morgan City a 17-10 lead. While Liner had a service error on the next play, Morgan City rattled off eight of the set’s next 10 points, including a kill and an ace each by Ingram, a kill by Liner and three kills by Jones, including the game winner.
    Jones led the Lady Tigers in Thursday’s match with 12 kills, while she also contributed one block and a dig.
    Ingram had seven aces, nine kills, a block assist and five digs in the match, while Liner had an ace, seven kills and four digs.
    In game two, Morgan City again couldn’t pull away from Evangel until late in the game. Ahead 19-15, Morgan City finished the game on a 6-1 run that included Morgan City points via a kill apiece by Jones and Liner, as well as Evangel errors. Morgan City closed the match via an ace.
   Evangel gave Morgan City its toughest game in the third set as the Lady Tigers did not take the lead for good until nearly midway through the match, at 14-13 via a kill by Jones.
   Morgan City had helped Evangel out early in the match with service and hitting errors before coming through.
   The Lady Tigers finished the match with kills by Liner and Ingram and two aces by Taylor Prince, including one on match point, helped the Lady Tigers seal the match.
   Other top contributors for the Lady Tigers in the match included Prince, five aces, one kill, a block assist, two assists and eight digs; Layne Reynaud, one ace, five kills, one block, 20 assists and four digs; Marilynn Bailey, four aces, two kills and 11 digs; and Savannah Loupe, seven digs.
   Now, the Lady Tigers will turn their attention to Division 3’s top-ranked team, Teurlings Catholic, which received a first-round bye.
   The two teams will meet Monday at 5:30 p.m. at Teurlings Catholic in Lafayette.
   Theriot said her squad would have to improve on the number of unforced errors it surrenders as well as be more on their toes against Teurlings.
   “Teurlings has a lot more experience on them, and you can expect the ball to come back a lot more consistently, so we’ve got to play good defense and allow our offense to run,” she said.
Central Catholic’s second-round game set
   The Central Catholic Lady Eagles’ Division 5 fourth-seed, will begin postseason play Monday at home vs. Northside  Christian in the second round at 5:30 p.m.
   The Lady Eagles received a first-round bye, while Northside Chrisitian, the No. 13 seed, advanced after defeating No. 20 seed Westminster Christian 25-9, 28-26, 25-15 in first-round action Thursday.
   Admission to Monday’s contest will be $7 for adults and $3 for students.