By DAVE WOODALL
Slidell Sports writer
SLIDELL — It had all the similarities of a heavyweight fight as John Curtis and Northshore entered the fray riding individual win streaks.
Northshore stepped on the court with a 14-5 record and a 13-game winning streak while John Curtis was undefeated sporting a 12-0 record.
But it was the Patriots who kept their unbeaten streak alive with a hard fought, come-from-behind, 3-2 victory at the Panthers’ gym.
The Patriots won 25-21, 16-25, 16-25, 25-23, 17-15.
“It was a tough match between two very good teams,” said John Curtis coach Dawn Curtis.
“We came back from some big deficits for the win. I told them to be patient and to come back one point at a time”
Northshore fell short in the first set but roared back to capture the next two sets by identical scores of 25-16, 25-16.
On the brink of elimination, John Curtis let a 23-18 lead evaporate to 24-23. But an error by the Panthers gave the Patriots the set and forced a fifth and deciding game.
Northshore quickly built a 9-3 lead that seemingly put them in control of the set.
But the Patriots had other ideas and came back to tie at 13-13.
Five lead changes later saw the Patriots take the 17-15 victory.
Tatiana Bell led the Patriots with 18 kills and 11 digs. Carsyn Wallow had 12 kills. Kelsie Oestriecher had 23 digs, and Sarah Drake added 11.
Reaghan Fabacher had 26 assists, and Dani Hebert had 19 assists to lead the Patriot offense.
“I think we lost our focus and John Curtis did a better job keeping theirs,” said Northshore coach Danny Davis.
“Even though we lost the fourth game, the momentum toward the end of the fourth carried us right into the fifth game, and we were able to get off to a good start. For some reason or another, we started playing not to lose instead of playing to win.”
Hailey Kirkpatrick had an excellent night for Northshore with 15 kills. Sabrina Buelle had 22 digs, and Carly Merry added six aces and three blocks. Hannah Epperson collected 37 assists for the Panthers.
NS defeats Skippers
Sometimes a loss has a silver lining.
The Northshore Lady Panthers, after winning 13 straight matches, fell to the John Curtis Lady Patriots the night before the Mandeville game.
“I was very proud of the way our kids played after such an emotional loss in our last match,” Northshore coach Danny Davis said. “We’ve got to get back in the gym and we need to prepare for another tough match against a very good Slidell team at their place.”
The loss seemed to spur the Panthers (14-6, 5-0) to beat a tough Mandeville team 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 25-27, 25-22) to stay unbeaten in District 4-I.
Hailey Kirkpatrick led Northshore with 21 kills and four aces while Hannah Epperley collected 10 kills.
Sabrina Buelle had an amazing 34 digs, and Caitlyn Epperson had four blocks.
Sam Gomez had a great night for Mandeville (9-7, 4-1) slamming 16 kills while Emily Boylan and Kailynn Haley each had eight.
Sarah Rinaudo paced the offense with 25 assists and Brandi Bundy added 19.
Defensively, Ali LeBlanc led with 24 digs, followed by Amber Sheffield with 15, Haley with 11, and Bundy with 10.
“Northshore deserves all of the credit in the world for keeping pressure on us,” said Mandeville coach Jody Walker.