An elated Mariah Mott said the words she’s waited to say since she and her Hahnville teammates began preparing for the season.
“Lafayette, here we come!” Mott said with a big smile.
The Lady Tigers are headed to the state volleyball tournament at the Lafayette Cajundome after defeating St. Joseph’s Academy in a Division I non-select second round match at Hahnville Saturday, 25-14, 25-20, 26-24.
The No. 4 seeded Hahnville will face No. 12 Northshore Thursday night at 8 p.m. in the state quarterfinals. Northshore upset fifth-seeded Fontainebleau in the second round to advance.
“We fought really hard. We wanted it,” Mott said. “It really hurt us last time (in the 2023 playoffs), being so close … we knew this was our time.”
This will be Hahnville’s first trip to the state tournament since 2006.
“It feels really good … we talked about this the whole season and we were all so hyped for this game. We were dancing in the locker room and having so much fun,” said Hahnville libero Kylie Spurgeon, who had a team-high 20 digs against St. Joseph’s. “Our motto was put your all into it, you deserve to be here, and it just motivated us.”
Hahnville head coach Mendi LeBoeuf said it meant that much more to be able to punch that ticket in front of the home fans, and against a St. Joseph’s program that Hahnville had not been able to solve in the playoffs in past seasons.
As she saw the joy on her celebrating players’ faces, LeBoeuf said there’s nothing like it.
“This is why you coach,” LeBoeuf said. “It’s about the kids, it’s about their journey, their growth … that hard work they put in and then being successful. It was really painful last year to lose to Fontainebleau in 5 … winning today is everything. They worked for this and they deserve it.”
St. Joseph’s (19-14) had won 10 of 12 matches entering the second round matchup.
Hahnville (31-7) trailed 18-13 in the third set of Saturday’s match, and it seemed St. Joseph’s might extend the match to a fourth set.
“We have a thing with Coach LeBoeuf, she was over there about to start breaking some clipboards – we bought her some extra ones,” Spurgeon quipped. “We were in the huddle, talking about – we deserve to be here, a lot of teams don’t think we deserve to reach the state championship. We know we have it. We know we can do it. And I think that confidence helped us get back in it.”
Hahnville locked in – and that certainly included Mott, who took charge immediately. The Tigers scored the next six points, including a kill by Mott that gave Hahnville the lead at 19-18. St. Joseph’s tied it, but Mott made another kill and served an ace to push Hahnville ahead again by two.
“I was telling my team, I’m here. I’m ready every time for it,” Mott said.
LeBoeuf said Mott’s presence was felt everywhere Saturday.
“She routinely does her job and her job is hard, because everyone’s keyed in on her,” LeBoeuf said. “I thought all day, even on the service line, her impact and aggressiveness was felt all over the court. Defensively, she ran balls down on the baseline. She’s just a complete player and she makes us better in every way.”
St. Joseph’s came back again to tie before Maci Hollingsworth spiked the ball for a kill that pushed HHS back up 24-23. St. Joseph’s wouldn’t lead again and the Tigers closed the match -then the celebration began.
“That’s major, that’s playoff volleyball,” LeBoeuf said of the comeback in the third set. “I’m glad we had to deal with a little adversity and see how we’d react to that. I thought our pace of game was good today. We never got in a laid-back way. We just got to the next point and that’s why we ended up the way we did. We wanted to stay aggressive – serve aggressive, swing aggressive, defend it out and we’ll see what happens.”
Jada Moore had 12 kills and Mott had 11 for Hahnville. Hollingsworth added six. Kylie Spurgeon had 20 digs while Mott and Makynzi Williams each had nine digs. Moore also had four blocks.
Hahnville jumped out ahead quickly in the first set, ultimately finishing it off with a Hollingsworth kill. It was a similar script in set two, with a back-and-forth early going giving way to a Hahnville surge – the Lady Tigers opened up a 21-12 lead to all but secure things. Moore slammed home a kill to clinch the final point here.
For the Lady Tigers, it’s the continuation of a journey following a heartbreaking 2023 playoff defeat at home in the second round to Fontainebleau, one that went down to the wire in five sets.
Following that defeat, the Tiger players committed to pushing even harder to reach the state tournament, asked LeBoeuf to schedule the biggest and best competition and put in the work to nail down what’s been a 31-win season – and counting.
“We made it, and now we’ve got to keep going,” Mott said. “Yes, we’re going to state, but we want to go all the way to the championship.”
