T’bonne proud of season, despite loss

Terrebonne High School volleyball coach Craig Hamner knew that even in a perfect world his team had several obstacles to overcome this season.

In Hamner’s first-ever playoff game as a head coach against Comeaux, it was hardly a perfect world for the Lady Tigers.

With Terrebonne holding a comfortable lead in the first set, the Lady Tigers’ big hitter Brooke Fonseca went down with an apparent ankle/leg injury.

As Fonseca’s lower body buckled, so went Terrebonne’s season as the Lady Tigers never recovered and fell in straight sets (26-24, 25-6, 25-15) to Comeaux.

“We were playing well in that first set,” Hamner said. “But when Brooke went down, it really threw a wrench in the whole thing. … We just got caught into something tonight to where it wasn’t so much the other team that got us down as much as the whole atmosphere after losing Brooke. It was just a difficult situation tonight.”

Despite Terrebonne’s first-round exit and tears pouring out of the eyes of the Lady Tigers’ youthful team, there was one message Hamner left with his team: pride in what was a successful season.

“We had a good year,” Hamner said. “We have a lot to be proud of for sure.”

This year’s Terrebonne volleyball team had only one thing in common with last year’s team: the color jerseys they wore.

The Lady Tigers lost virtually their entire roster to graduation after last season, which caused Terrebonne to sometimes fight through the growing pains of inexperience.

If that’s not a bad enough problem to have, Hamner’s team also had to deal with injuries all throughout the season, including in their eventual season-ending loss.

“We only played nine games this year with our full starting lineup,” Hamner said. “So I guess it’s fitting that we end the season still not playing with our starting lineup.”

Even with all of the challenges, the season wasn’t all lost for Terrebonne, as the Lady Tigers won a share of the district championship thanks to a late-season win against H.L. Bourgeois.

With most of the team coming back for one more year, Hamner said he believes all of this year’s learning experiences will translate into more developed success next year.

“This was a season where a lot of young girls got a lot of experience,” Hamner said. “And we’re hoping to carry that onto next year and see good things for us in the next year, hopefully.”

Elsewhere in the Tri-parish area:

While Terrebonne bowed out of the playoffs, several other Tri-parish schools are still alive in the postseason.

In Division I, H.L. Bourgeois had a first-round bye, and moved on to play Archbishop Chapelle in the Regional Round.

In Division II, both Morgan City and Vandebilt are still going strong. The Tigers are going to take on No. 1 seed Assumption in the Regional round after beating Pearl River in straight sets.

Vandebilt had an opening-round bye and moved on to play Westgate.

E.D. White is also still alive, currently holding the No. 2 seed in Division III. The Cardinals took on Lakeshore in the Regional Round.

Division V has two Tri-parish teams still standing, as No. 3-seed Central Catholic had a bye in the first round and took on Ecole Classique in the Regional Round.

Houma Christian is also kicking in Division V and took on St. Martin’s Episcopal after scoring a straight-set opening round win against the Louisiana School for the Deaf.

All of the Regional Round matches were played Monday afternoon and night and scores were not available at press time.

Where several teams survived the Bi-District Round, a few teams weren’t quite as lucky.

In Division I, Thibodaux lost a straight-set match to St. Scholastica. South Terrebonne also fell in the opening round on the Division II side, falling in straight sets to Westgate. Berwick lost in the opening round of the play, dropping a straight-sets match to Northlake Christian.

Terrebonne sophomore volleyball player Darian Dees leaps for a block during last week’s playoff match against Comeaux. Dees is one of several Lady Tigers who will return next season — one Terrebonne coach Craig Hamner expects to be a good one. CASEY GISCLAIR I TRI-PARISH TIMES