By DAVE WOODALL
Slidell sports writer
SLIDELL — It took everything they could muster as the Slidell Lady Tigers held on for a 3-1 (25-14, 25-22, 17-25, 25-20) win in District 4-I action.
The Lady Tigers (16-8, 4-3) breezed through the first set as their dominance came from the service line on nice efforts from Erica Bennet, Sabrina Miller and Victoria Rizan.
Covington (7-20, 1-7) started to feel it in the second set tying it up seven times before falling 25-22.
The Lady Lions carried that momentum over to the third set trailing only once in the match as Slidell had no answer for Covington’s play at the net falling 25-17 to the Lions.
But thanks to some excellent play, again, at the service line, Slidell regained its composure and came back with a match-ending 25-20 win.
“I thought both teams did a nice job,” Slidell coach Michelle Anderson said. “Neither team gave up and fought hard. The girls served the ball well especially, when the score was tight. When we get in tight situations we tend to get scared and tighten up. We’ve been working on that all year since that has been our biggest problem.”
Bennet had 12 kills and three aces for the Tigers while Jaslyn Bright contributed six kills and three aces. Morgan Authement had eight kills and Kacie Livingston had 15 digs. Riley Herdliska dished out 15 assists and three aces with Abby right behind with 12 assists.
Covington coach Debbie Adams was gracious in defeat saying, “Both teams played hard. I thought this was one of the better played matches that my kids have played all season. Slidell is a good team and we both came in ready to play today. We changed up our lineup and I think it made a difference in our play.”
Leading the Lady Lions was Morgan Jarrell who picked up 11 digs and three aces. Keri Jones had four blocks and Hannah Fersch collected 10