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The St. Mary’s High girls volleyball team bounced back from their disappointing loss to Albany High to sweep the Clear Lake Cardinals 15-4, 15-13 and 15-5 in the first round of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs. 

“When we’re on, we’re really on, and they were on today,” St. Mary’s head coach Cherise Revell said. “We had a bad game on Saturday and we wanted to come back strong, which we did.”  

The Panthers had outstanding offense from Natalie Bogan, Jazmin Pratt, Martha Ryan and Brittney Murrey, who combined for 28 kills. St. Mary’s also had an excellent service game, serving up 15 aces.  

“We realized we had to be strong mentally in this game,” Pratt said. “We actually looked for our shots, looked for our opportunities, instead of just powering the ball over the net, and played strong the whole time.” 

St. Mary’s got off to an excellent start, running up a 8-0 lead in the first game, with the first three points on aces. Clear Lake had difficulty handling the ball, returning several balls out of bounds or in to the net. Clear Lake never really got going on offense, with two of their points coming from St. Mary’s errors. 

The Panthers started slow in the second game, falling behind 10-5, before going on a four point run to tie the game at 10-10 powered by Pratt’s offense. St. Mary’s then took the lead, but allowed Clear Lake to tie the game at 12-12. St. Mary’s put the game away on a spike by Ryan that the Cardinals were unable to return. 

Coach Revell blamed the slow start in the second game on herself, “I was switching things up and trying something new in the second game that didn’t work out as intended,” Revell said. “We were fine when we got back to what we knew.” 

The final game started out evenly matched, as Clear Lake fought for survival. With the score tied at 4-4, however, Clear Lake began to fall apart. Clear Lake allowed the Panthers to go on a seven point run, with six of the points coming on Clear Lake errors. Ahead 14-5, Jazmin Pratt brought the match home with a strong serve that Clear Lake could not properly return. 

“We pulled it all together when we needed it,” Pratt said. “When points mattered we got points, and when a side out mattered we got a side out. We kept focused on the next point, rather than the overall score.” 

St. Mary’s will likely face Albany again tomorrow night in the second round of the playoffs, a rematch that the Panthers are very much looking forward to. 

“If they come out with the intensity they had today, Albany’s up for a fight,” Revell said. “They are driven to win tomorrow.”