E.D. White volleyball relishes Final 4 run

Earnest Sims
November 18, 2015
Ellender fires Terry Washington
November 18, 2015
Earnest Sims
November 18, 2015
Ellender fires Terry Washington
November 18, 2015

The E.D. White volleyball team entered the playoffs with a record below .500 on the season.

The Lady Cardinals never faltered, nor had doubt. They got hot at the right time and pushed all the way to the Division III State Semifinals – two wins shy of the state championship.


The past week was a memorable one for E.D. White, which continued its Cinderella run on Thursday by trumping No. 3 Westlake in four sets (25-16, 19-25, 25-16, 25-17). A day later, the Lady Cardinals lost in the Semifinals to Lutcher (17-25, 20-25, 25-19, 16-25) to end the team’s season. First-year coach Sarah Johnson said she couldn’t be any more proud of her team, touting that the team’s players made her inaugural season with the team one which she will never forget.

“I could not have asked for a better group of volleyball players for my first season,” Johnson said. “It was a season of highs and lows…. I could not have been more proud of the No. 11 team in Division III for making it all the way to the State Semifinals.”

This was a season of transition for E.D. White volleyball.


Let’s start with Johnson. The Lady Cardinals promoted the assistant coach to run the program after long-time, Hall of Fame coach Mary Cavell stepped aside last season after 30-plus years on the job. The move wasn’t unexpected. Cavell announced before the 2014 campaign that the season would be

her last and that the job was Johnson’s to have in 2015.

But the transition wasn’t easy at first. Johnson said the Lady Cardinals faced a brutally tough schedule to open 2015, which bogged down the team’s record. E.D. White started the season 2-13 – a dry spell that included a nine-match losing streak from Sept. 10 to Sept. 19.


Johnson said the challenge was to keep the morale and spirits high of a team which she said always was talented, but didn’t have the experience to win close matches against top competition early in the season.

“Most of the girls on the team did not have very much varsity experience,” Johnson said. “We were always determined to be successful. They knew how I was as a coach from playing JV, and they knew that I always have high expectations for them.”

Toward the end of the year, those expectations began to pay off.


After the early struggles, E.D. White started to gel and round into form. After the tough stretch, the Lady Cardinals finished the season with a 13-7 mark in their final 20 matches to take the No. 11 seed into the playoffs.

Johnson said before the start of postseason, she refocused the team and told them that it was time to start fresh. She said that she never had a doubt that the team could make a run and be one of the final few teams left standing.

The Lady Cardinals trumped Springfield in the opening round in straight sets, then upset No. 6 St. Michael on the road in four sets (16-25, 26-24, 25-23, 25-22) last Monday night. At the state tournament, E.D. White kept its Cinderella mojo going against Westlake in a quarterfinals upset before bowing out in the Final Four to Lutcher.


“Our theme for the playoffs was resilience – getting knocked down in the beginning, but never giving up and learning from the hard times,” Johnson said. “I reminded them every game of this, and I could not have been more proud of our team for making it where we did.”

But with the team’s journey now complete, Johnson said she’s already looking to next season and sustaining the success.

The coach said E.D. White relied heavily on a heavy, nine-player senior class that provided leadership both on and off the court throughout the year – young ladies like Whitney Sternfels, Gabby Durocher, Jacie Oubre, Claire Robichaux, and Megan Waguespack, and more.


Next year, Johnson said the team will need to see continued contributions from striker Lindsie Sanders, as well as breakout performances from ladies like Michae Jones, Rebecka Bollinger and Lila Bordis.

‘We played with a lot of energy.’

Sarah Johnson


E.D. White volleyball coach

E.D. White volleyball relishes Final 4 run