After falling behind St. Louis going into the fourth set, the Barbe Lady Bucs seemed in peril.

However, thanks to some resilience and a funny roll, the Bucs took the five-set match between crosstown rivals in dramatic fashion — 25-21, 24-26, 22-25, 25-14, 15-10.

Up 14-10 in the deciding set and serving, Barbe (12-6, 2-0) popped up a shot that did something different — rolling along the top of the net before falling on the Saints’ side.

“It’s always good to play a match like that with a crosstown rival,” St. Louis head coach Luke Pousson said. “That’s how the playoffs are. It’s loud. It’s a tough atmosphere. It goes a few breaks going either way can make the difference. I’m proud of our girls. We got here and played our hearts out.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted, but we’re going to learn from it and get better.”

The Bucs took a back-and-forth first set, at one point scoring five consecutive points to go up 10-6.

But St. Louis took the next two sets, coming back from 16-7 in the second to take 13 of the next 14 points to go up 20-17 before taking that set 26-24.

“This is a big rivalry game for the two schools,” Barbe head coach Jeremy White said. “We started off with a lot of intensity, but we knew they were going to come back. They’re a great team like that.”

However ,with the match on the line, the Bucs rose to the occasion, dominating the fourth set and pulling through in the final stanza.

Barbe’s Courtney LaFargue stayed busy, assisting on 58 points, including 20 kills by Ebony Lewis and 23 kills by Peyton Montgomery.

(mgnonline.com)