By DAVE WOODALL
Slidell sports writer
PEARL RIVER — Pearl River’s volleyball team thrived last week with two important District 5-III victorys over Albany and Springfield and took home the District 5-III championship.
Pearl River vs Albany
The Lady Rebels crushed Albany 3-0 (25-9, 25-9, 25-9) to up their season record to 18-3 and 6-0.
Alicia Bianchini had nine kills and Brooke Heinz had six. Madison Roya led the offensive attack with nine aces.
Pearl River coach Courtney Lebourdette was pleased with the saying,”We are playing consistently well lately but we need to step up our game even more as we finish district and head into the playoffs.”
Pearl River vs Springfield
It was a battle between the number one and number two team in the District 5-III race. The Springfield Lady Bulldogs (16-6, 5-2) were in town to take on league leading Pearl River.
Springfield had even more incentive trying to get revenge for their only loss in district play that came at the hands of the Lady Rebels. And a battle it was as the Lady Rebels came back after going down in the first two sets to capture the district title with a 3-2 win (19-25, 16-25, 25-22, 25-22, 15-8). It was also Senior Night at Pearl River as the home crowd paid homage to four Rebel seniors – Brittnei Alvarez, Alicia Bianchini, Madison Roya and Sierra St. Pierre.
“We didn’t wake up until the third set after that we calmed down and played well,” said Rebel coach Courtney Labourdette. Senior captain St. Pierre was also very excited with the win saying, “We had to minimize our errors after the first two sets and control our spikes. Once we calmed down we started playing much better.”
Alvarez had 20 digs and Heinz had 21 digs and eight kills. Abby Mayfield had five kills and five aces while Kasey Harris put up seven kills and 11 digs. Roya finished the night with 17 assists.