The St. Thomas More volleyball team moved closer to securing another district title Tuesday, sweeping past Teurlings Catholic in another dominant performance.
The Cougars (28-4, 5-0 District 4-II) cruised to a 25-18, 25-10, 25-17 win at Teurlings.
“I thought we executed really well,” coach Jessica Burke said of the Cougars, ranked No. 1 in the LHSAA’s Division II power rankings. “I thought that we were aggressive and we did a really good job of maintaining that state of aggression throughout the game, which is one of our focuses this year.”
Not only were the Cougars aggressive, but they were balanced.
“I think that’s kind of how we traditionally try to run our offense,” Burke said. “We have kids that can terminate the ball everywhere, so we don’t necessarily need to rely on one player. I think any of our players have the ability to take over a game if they need to.”
STM’s top performers were Abby Strother (six kills, two digs), Amelia Guthereau (six kills, three digs), Mallory Franklin (six kills), Morgan Dunn (six kills, nine digs, two aces) and Clare Thompson (28 assists, nine digs, two kills).
“When we’re passing really well, defending well, and we’re able to have all three of our options, my setter (Thompson) is just able to read and react based on what the block on the other side is doing,” Burke said. “She’s able to spread the offense when have really good first contact.”
Freshman Lauren Froehlich recorded six kills, four digs, two blocks and one assist.
“I thought it was a coming-out party for my (freshman) middle blocker,” Burke said. “We’ve been working really hard to get her faster and more up to varsity speed. She’s always been a great blocker. But the offensive side we’ve still been working on because it’s a big change. The tempo coming from eighth grade to varsity is a big change. So that was really cool for her to be able to shine in that way.”
The Cougars have shined to the tune of winning 14 of their past 15 matches and 24 of their past 26.
“We were super aggressive and all we needed to do is kind of maintain that,” Burke said. “I know that Teurlings is one of the better teams in our area, so respect to them. But I definitely think we had such a fast start that it was going to be hard to overcome.”
The loss halted Teurlngs’ win streak at seven.
Hannah Bergeron (five kills, seven digs), Kate Trahan (20 digs, three aces), Kallie Landry (12 digs, two kills), Ava Robin (three kills, five digs) and Courtlin Moran (three kills, ace, two digs) led the Rebels.
Burke said she doesn’t think STM is peaking yet.
“I definitely think that we are continuing to get better,” she said. “We’re not necessarily looking to peak right now, but instead kind of maintain a slow rise. Our goal is just to get better every session, every game and fine tune some things and maybe even add in a couple of layers as we head to the postseason.”
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