Round 1 survival

It probably wasn’t New Iberia Senior High’s intention to keep its fans around a long time Monday in its Division I playoff game with St. Amant.

More likely, the Lady Jackets had planned to dispatch the Lady Gators quickly and turn their attention to a looming second-round matchup with long-time state volleyball power St. Joseph’s Academy at the state tournament in Kenner.

But NISH was also battling a history of playing poorly in the first round of the tournament and -- both fortunately and unfortunately -- history and a scrappy St. Amant team forced a five game match that turned contentious in the final game as New Iberia advanced to the state tournament with a 3-2 (32-30, 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-9) win.

“We wanted to keep them here as long as we could and they were here about two hours and 20 minutes,” said NISH coach Ron Hebert. “Since it was a school night and they traveled here we planned to keep them here for a long time.”

Hebert could joke a little after the match considering the Lady Jackets advanced to the state tournament for the eighth time in 10 years, but the match was no joking matter.

St. Amant, the 19th seed in Division I and taking its second trip to New Iberia this year after losing a match at Catholic High earlier in the season, played tough volleyball against the Lady Jackets, forcing the first game to 30 points before NISH eked out a 32-30 win.

It was as close to a microcosm of NISH’s season as possible.

“We haven’t gone five game a lot this year but we have given up a lot of points this year,” said Hebert. “We win just enough to get by.”

St. Amant took the second game 25-23, NISH won the third 25-18 and was leading 20-13 in the fourth game before the Lady Gators rallied to win 25-23 and force a fifth and deciding game with both teams’ playoff futures on the line.

“It was a tight game. Too tight,” said NISH hitter Shalicia Rochon. “It’s like we’re inconsistent. We need to be more consistent. It was like win or go home and we don’t have time to play around.

“The fifth game was win or go home. We decided to stop playing around and start playing.”

Every point was contested in the final game, with long rallies and points that were saved by almost impossible dives just to keep the ball alive so that another player could hit it back over the net to the opposing team.

The game was tied at 7-7 in the final set when a couple of close calls finally swung the momentum to the Lady Jackets.

“I felt that there were calls that should have been made both ways throughout the game,” said Hebert. “I don’t know why she (St. Amant coach Allison Leake) got upset because she was on the good end of a lot of the calls.”

An out call by a linesman and a tipped call by a linesman on a Rochon kill that landed out both went NISH’s way, which agitated the St. Amant fans and caused Leake to briefly question both calls, but both were upheld by the match official.

The Lady Jackets used the momentum to close out the game 15-9 to advance to the second round.

“I don’t think either one of those linesmen would be making things up,” said Hebert. “They were calling like they saw it, the officials were calling like they saw it.

“We don’t necessarily agree with what they called but it can go both ways.”

Leake was unavailable for comment after the game.

NISH will play St. Joseph in the regionals Wednesday at 5 p.m.

St. Joseph beat Ponchatoula 3-0 Monday in the first round.

“You have to get focused and stay focused,” said Hebert. “That’s the key and we don’t play well here at home in the first round. We’ll be matched up with St. Joe and we’ll be the underdog.

“We have nothing to lose. Let’s just go in and play the game.”