• By DAMIAN FOLEY
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Aug 27, 2009 - Page: 2C

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Two-time defending Division I-Class 5A volleyball state champion St. Joseph’s Academy was hitting on all cylinders and it showed at the McKinley Jamboree.

The Redstickers beat their three opponents by a combined score of 54-23 to help highlight the jamboree  held Wednesday at Louisiana School for the Deaf.

SJA raced past another Division I school, Denham Springs High, by an 18-3 score in its first game. The Redstickers followed that win with 18-10 victories over two traditional Division IV-Class 2A powers The Dunham School and University High.

Cori Martone, last year’s All-Metro MVP for Divisions I-II, led the way for SJA with a handful of kills, and one block, in St. Joseph’s match against the Cubs.

Despite the Redstickers dominance, head coach Sivi Miller still saw room for improvement from her senior-laden team.

“We have a strong group of seniors, but there are a lot of things we need to work on to make our system run smoothly,” Miller said. “They played hard, and they were competitive.”

With the sweep on the line, St. Joseph’s was tested early by University High, with the Cubs scoring first and leading at 3-2. After a pair of University High errors, Martone blocked a shot to put the Redstickers up 5-3, and despite having its lead cut to one at 7-6 and 11-10, St. Joseph’s held strong the rest of the way to claim the win.

Host McKinley High won its first game, 18-15 over Baton Rouge High, but dropped close matches to Redemptorist and St. Joseph’s junior varsity squad to finish the night 1-2.

“This is the best we’ve looked this early,” said Panthers coach Brenda Simon. “I’m pleased we played that well together. We played well at the net. I thought our kids made good decisions at the net, and we served well.”

In the final session of the night, St. Michael brushed aside Episcopal and eked out a win against Central before taking on Parkview Baptist with a sweep of its own on the line.

The Eagles started the night off inauspiciously, dropping an 18-9 decision against Central, before rebounding to edge Episcopal by one.

Parkview was then only too happy to play the spoiler in the final game and ended St. Michael’s quest for a three-match sweep with an 18-14 win. Morganne Ashley made a number of kills on the front line.

“These kids just got a new head coach two weeks ago,” said coach Shirley Depew. “Since then, they’ve been practicing their behinds off. They had some nerves walking in, and that lost them the first game, but after that they gelled and became a team.”