Catholic High got what it wanted from a non-district volleyball match against Morgan City High School Wednesday evening -- a quality win in a tight match with a tough opponent.

The biggest lead for either team was at 8 points by Catholic High late in the second game before Morgan City rallied to within 3. Catholic High came from behind in all three games to earn a 25-20, 25-21, 25-23 win, helping the Lady Panthers improve to 25-8 overall. Morgan City fell to 18-20.

MCHS had won a meeting on Oct. 18 between the teams 25-19, 25-19, 25-22 in Morgan City.

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“I think the attitude the girls have right now is the attitude they need to maintain the next three weeks, 21⁄2 weeks,” said CHS coach April Harris.

Morgan City led 8-4 in the first game before Catholic High rallied behind a kill from Lanie Lissard to take its first lead at 11-10. The game remained close until Casey Breaux served for three straight points to stretch an 18-17 lead to 21-17 before MCHS got the ball back and pulled to within 21-19.

Another kill by Lissard, one of two seniors honored by Catholic High before the match, got the serve back for the Lady Panthers, and Taylor Lahasky served for the final three points for the first-game win. Senior Kristin Ball also was honored.

Lissard finished the match with nine kills, four service aces and 10 digs. Lahasky had seven kills and two aces.

MCHS again led early in the second game, going up 4-1 with help from two kills by Jessica Aucoin. CHS came back to take the lead at 6-5 on an ace by Lissard, then began pulling away slowly, getting to 13-9 on a serve by Lahasky, then to 16-11 on Lissard’s kill, and 18-12 on a kill by Lahasky following a long rally.

CHS made it 24-16 on a couple of errors by Morgan City before the Lady Tigers got the serve back with a kill by Aucoin. Lauren O’Brien then served for four straight points for MCHS, with a couple of Catholic High errors contributing to the surge, but a kill by Lissard ended the game at 25-21.

“(Hitting errors), passing errors, every kind of error,” said MCHS coach Christy Theriot. “(Catholic High) played well, consistent. Their hitters kept the ball in play.

“I just know heading into the playoffs we can’t play like that. Too many unforced errors.”

Aucoin led Morgan City with six kills and Alex Clements had three kills.

The third game followed the pattern of the first two, with Morgan City building a 5-1 lead before Catholic High finally took its first lead at 8-7 on a tap by Mary Hoag. Morgan City pulled ahead at 12-9 before a serve in the net made it 12-10, and the teams were within a point or two of each other from there until Lahasky took over the serve with the score knotted at 23. A kill by Lissard and a serve between two Morgan City players who hesitated before mis-hitting the ball ended the match.

“Morgan City had a good team, a very good team,” said Harris.

Marie Hoag had five kills for CHS, while Mary Frances Hoag added five kills and three aces. Kirsten Kidder also had five kills, Abby Henagan had 12 digs, Breaux had eight digs and two aces and Sydney Lahasky had 27 assists.

Harris noted that the Lady Panthers were struggling at 6-6 early in the season when she and coach Joanne Uhl made some position changes in the starting lineups.

Things seemed to click for Catholic High at that point, with the Lady Panthers going on a nine-match win streak.

CHS has gone 19-2 since then.

“We seemed to start playing well together,” said Harris. “This is the first year they’ve played together. We had very few who started on varsity (before this season).”

Winning six straight in the Delcambre tournament was a big boost, as was playing in two tournaments in a row.

CHS plays in the ESA Spooktacular tournament this weekend, facing St. Michael’s at 3 p.m. and St. Joseph’s at 5 p.m. Friday. The tournament gives Catholic High another tough challenge to help prepare the District 6, Division IV champions for the playoffs.

“It’s an opportunity to see a lot of good teams,” said Harris.