The Barbe Lady Bucs won the Division I, District 1 championship outright Tuesday night when they knocked off Comeaux at home in straight sets 25-19, 25-11, 25-20.

For the Bucs (33-4, 14-0) and first-year head coach Katie Kennedy, their short-term goal has been reached in taking home the district crown, but with the playoffs are right around the corner, there will be more to achieve.

“One of our goals this whole season was to become district champions,” Kennedy said. “This feels good, especially knowing that our seniors get to go out with a district championship.”

Last season the Bucs finished as runners-up to the Spartans (25-6, 11-2).

Barbe started the first game strong, pulling ahead of Comeaux 13-5 using two four-point serving runs before trading points to finish the game.

The second game was all Barbe with senior Peyton Montgomery starting the frame with an eight-point serving run. The teams traded points before freshman Julia Papania put it out of reach with an eight-point serving run.

In the third game, the Spartans came alive to take their biggest lead of the match at 12-9 behind a five-point run that included three consecutive aces by Ashley Morvant, but Barbe called a timeout to kill the momentum and regain its composure.

Montgomery and fellow senior Naomi Smith each went on five-point runs to seal the win.

“In the first two sets we started tough and kept (Comeaux) out of their system,” Kennedy said. “The third set we kind of relaxed, but still managed to stay dialed in.”

Montgomery finished with 14 digs, six kills and a two blocks. Papania added 30 assists and six digs, Ebony Lewis had 13 kills and three blocks and Bailey Thibodeaux finished with 10 digs and seven kills.(Rick Hickman/American Press)