WESTLAKE — This time the Rams finished the job.

Westlake beat St. Louis in four games to force a tie atop the Division III, District 2 standings with one district match remaining for each team.

Westlake (28-7, 10-1) won the first game 26-24 before St. Louis rallied to win the second game 25-10. Westlake stormed back to win the final two sets 25-21, 25-15.

Jaden Towner led the Rams with 13 kills and 10 blocks. Bethany Bergeron added 10 kills and eight blocks while Morgan Harlow had 30 assists.

Head coach Gloria Fontenot said the Rams made a few adjustments from their first match against the Saints, when they won the first two games before losing three straight.

“We changed the lineup a little bit,” Fontenot said. “We sent some of our better defensive players to bat. We needed to double block Shannon (Dalton). She is phenomenol. We had to change the lineup during the match to pinpoint her.”

Dalton led St. Louis (11-0, 10-1) with 18 kills while D’Asha Pitre added nine.

Saints coach Luke Pousson said his team made too many mistakes.

“They started to get some really good swings on the ball,” Pousson said. “Their passing got better and they were able to take more shots, more aggressive swings on us. We needed to minimize our errors and we didn’t. We gave them way too many chances and they took full advantadge of them.”

Fontenot said beating traditional power St. Louis was a big step for her program.

“It feels great; it is hard to put into words,” she said. “We had a mental block with them. This is big going into the playoffs.”(Kirk Meche/Special to the American Press)

Kirk Meche