State Tourney Regular: St. Michael Back for Ninth Straight Year, Facing Quarterfinal Test Against Parkview

by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

When the LHSAA released its brackets for the Division III playoffs the pairing literally jumped off the screen.  

Three weeks ago, when Parkview Baptist captured the District 5, Division III championship at St. Michael the Archangel, the possibility existed for a rematch of two of the state’s top teams in their division.

With both teams successfully navigating their way through the bracket fourth-seeded St. Michael (27-7) and fifth-seeded Parkview Baptist (23-10) will collide in the state tournament at 4:20 p.m. Thursday in the Lafayette Cajundome.

“We knew we had to work to get to the position we’re in currently,” St. Michael junior middle blocker Brynnan Kuber said. “We really wanted and hoped that we would meet them again. We’ve kind of been anticipating this. We still had to go by every game. We had to work and get things done and we did that.”

St. Michael coach Rob Smith acknowledged the close ties between the teams whose campuses are separated by a five-mile stretch in southeast Baton Rouge.

“We know them, they know us,” he said. “Some of these girls play against each other in club and play with each other in club. They live next to each other in the same neighborhood. I don’t think there’s any secrets.”

St. Michael has been a Division III staple under Smith and is making its ninth consecutive trip to the state tournament, but relishes a breakthrough moment. During their current stretch, the Lady Warriors have advanced to the state semifinals four times and have a state runner-up finish to their credit in 2007.

“The last two years we went, and it wasn’t what we wanted,” St. Michael junior outside hitter Bella Johnston said. “We had the goal this year to go back, and we know we’ve got to go in and play well and have another chance, and hopefully do it again next year. We want to make it to the end this year.”

Junior outside hitter Bella Bravata, a recent commitment to Southeastern Louisiana’s beach volleyball program, embraces another chance to play in another state tournament.

“I’m excited we’ve been given this opportunity again,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard and hopefully we’ll have a different outcome. We’re working hard this week.”

Junior Achievement

St. Michael lost two seniors to graduation from last year’s state quarterfinalist team that went 29-8, losing to Catholic-New Iberia in three sets in the season’s final match. 

The Lady Warriors returned a junior-laden team that had garnered plenty of experience either as starters or rotational players led by Johnston, a first-team All-District and All-Metro selection.

Bravata was another player who earned first-team All-District honors and was an honorable mention All-Metro member. Honorable mention honors in the district also went to libero Ava Rodrigue, setter Marielle Gary, and middle blocker Skylar Towner.

That left this year’s team devoid of any seniors. 

“We knew that we had to take on the leadership,” Johnston said. “Since there weren’t any seniors, we had to go from being one of the younger ones to picking up the role as juniors and act like we were seniors. It was a big role to fill, but we knew that we had to do it. We had to help the freshman and everybody else get along on that path, tell them what we wanted and what we needed them to do.”

Smith was confident that the bulk of his junior class was stepping into their third year in the program and were aware of the expectations awaiting them.

“We’ve got a lot of kids that have played a lot of minutes this year, were in the playoffs the year before,” he said. “We aren’t an old veteran team in some regards, but we’re not a young team either.”

It’s hard to underscore the level of consistency for a program, that despite moving parts each season, continues to thrive each season. 

The team’s dedication includes playing club in the offseason to continue to improve individually so that when they reconvene for summer workouts and preseason practice, the flashes of previous success are still there. 

“One of our goals at the beginning of the season was to get back to the Cajundome and we’re all really excited to play Parkview again,” said Rodrigue, whose older sister Allison played for St. Michael. “We think it’s going to be a great matchup, and we’re excited to have a good game in the quarterfinals.”

Johnston and Bravata have been constants for St. Michael since their freshman year, while Rodrigue and Towner have started since their freshman seasons. 

Johnston has been a force at the net, leading the Lady Warriors with 241 kills, 214 digs, and 64 service aces. Bravata is next with 215 kills, 171 digs, and 46 aces followed by Towner (193 kills, 27 blocks, 10 aces), junior right-side/outside hitter Bella LeBlanc (116 kills, 37 digs), Kuber (98 kills, 20 blocks) and junior middle blocker Brynne Rabalais (78 kills).

Gary triggers the team’s offense with 400 assists and 63 aces and is a key contributor with 119 digs on defense. Junior setter Elizabeth Fitch is another asset to the team’s 6-2 offense with 309 assists and 46 aces to go along with 109 digs.

“We’ve got a ton of kids that have played high-level club,” Smith said. “Ava’s been very solid for us and Skylar has been in those big moments. She’s been a player that even in the middle can take over a game. That’s hard to do sometimes, especially as a middle (blocker) as a sophomore. She’s not playing that way. She knows what she can do, and we want to get her the ball as much as we can.

“This is Liz’s first year to start this year,” Smith said. “Brynnan is undersized as a middle blocker, but she slows down a lot of balls and blocks balls. When she goes up and gets a block, it gets our kids going with some emotion.”

Another Trip to the State Tournament

The challenges came early for this year’s team with losses to Archbishop Hannan, the reigning Division III state champion, and Dutchtown, a Division I state semifinalist a year ago.

“We kind of picked up our schedule strength this year,” Smith said. “We played a few more teams to make sure we were ready for a big moment. We went five sets with St. Joseph (a 3-2 win on Sept. 19) and Central (a 3-2 win on Oct. 10) and three sets in tournament play with Hahnville (a 2-1 defeat on Nov. 1). 

“We’ve played some really good teams and won in different ways whether it was offensively or defensively, or just win through attrition,” Smith said. “When you go 27-7, we felt we let a few get away, but over the course of a long season you always feel you tend to have some of those games. Everybody takes some losses. Sometimes you learn more in a loss than you do in a win.”

The opening losses set the stage for a 17-match winning streak that included a pair of wins over Sam Houston, a No. 2 seed in Division II, St. Joseph’s Academy, and a championship in the St. Michael’s tournament which included a six-set sweep of The Dunham School, Notre Dame and St. Charles Catholic.

The stretch carried the Lady Warriors to the top of the Division III power rankings.

“We’ve played a tough schedule this year and I think that’s helped us prepare ourselves,” Bravata said. “We’re not going to face teams that aren’t good.”

St. Michael, which had its winning streak stopped in four sets at home by Dunham, reeled off five straight wins until meeting Parkview Baptist in the final of the district tournament. 

The Lady Eagles didn’t trail during the best-of-three format and posted a 25-16, 25-7 victory.

“We just had a lot of unforced errors, and our serve and pass weren’t the best it’s been all year,” Rodrigue said.  I think we’ve worked a lot on that. I think we’re going to have a good performance.”

Said Johnston: “We need to start off strong. We didn’t start off well the last game, but this time we’ve changed our mindsets and going for it all.”

Kuber believes the setback to Parkview provided the team with greater clarity.

“I feel like since that loss we’ve been working really hard in the gym,” she said. “I feel like as a team we’ve gotten better1% every day and I feel like getting to the Cajundome is such a big accomplishment. Playing with our team is going to be a fun and exciting experience. I can’t wait.”

St. Michael divided its last six matches of the regular season, including a 1-3 showing in Dunham’s tournament with defeats to Hahnville and John Curtis.

The Lady Warriors, though, have responded in the postseason by sweeping No. 29 New Orleans Charter Science & Math and Eunice – not allowing more than 15 points in any of the six sets they’ve played.

The Lady Eagles followed suit in a pair of matches decided in three sets that featured a competitive regional win over No. 12 Lutcher.

“I think we’re excited to play them again,” Smith said. “We didn’t have a great performance against them when we played them last time. Our confidence is really good right now, so I don’t think that’s a concern for us. We know they’re going to come in ready to go, we’re going to be ready to go. It should be a great matchup.”