Serve, set & spike

It was serve, set, spike Wednesday as volleyball season opened with the Acadiana Area Jamboree held at New Iberia Senior High.

Fourteen teams participated in the jamboree including local teams New Iberia Senior High, Westgate, Catholic High, Delcambre and St. Martinville.

“The jamborees are like a glorified practice,” said NISH coach Ron Hebert. “It’s not like a scrimmage. It’s a little more advanced. You get some reps in, you’re wearing uniforms but there’s no trophy.

“You’re out here looking at different lineups and it’s your last chance to look at lineups before they starting counting on your record.”

NISH won its three tournament games, beating Beau Chene 25-17, St. Martinville 25-15 and Catholic High 25-12.

“In all three matches I looked at different lineups,” said Hebert. “I looked at having a libero (defensive specialist), I looked at not playing with a libero, I looked at different attacks, 6-2, 5-1. I looked at everything I could look at.

“Overall I thought the jamboree went well. We kept all the games ahead of time. We had some close matches and we had some that were not so close.”

As for the Lady Jackets’ performance heading into the season, Hebert was a bit more critical.

“We were real shaky in our first two games but we came out and played to our potential in the third game,” said Hebert. “We came out on top of them quick and they forced a lot of errors. I was pleased with the last game but I wasn’t with the first two.”

NISH’s cross-town rival Westgate lost all three games the team played in the jamboree. Dropping a 25-24 decision to Acadiana, 25-12 to Westminster and 25-8 to Catholic High.

“I thought we had a good jamboree,” said WHS coach Carrie Landry. “We had a case of nerves and jitters with the first games but we’ll be all right this year.”

Catholic High, in addition to losing to NISH and beating Westgate, also beat Opelousas High 25-16.

“We’re excited,” said CHS coach Erin Robison. “We’re working on new things that we started over the summer. We’re ready to get playing and get things going and we’ll see from there.”

The Lady Panthers lost a couple of top playing seniors from last year’s team but Robison said that she has some players ready to step in.

“I have a great group of five seniors who have really stepped it up,” said Robison. “My younger class has really stepped it up. We’ll miss a couple of players from last year but the rest of the team is ready to step in and play.”

Delcambre played two games in the jamboree, losing a pair of 25-16 decisions to Lafayette High and Cecilia. St. Martinville lost a game to NISH and also played Iota and Carencro. Scores from those games were not available.

The 2008 volleyball regular season begins next week as New Iberia travels to St. Martinville on Wednesday, Catholic High plays host to ESA on Tuesday, Delcambre travels to Iota on Tuesday and Westgate travels to Sulphur Thursday.