On Monday, the varsity boys volleyball team beat Mehlville 2-0 in the State quarterfinals to advance to the semifinal round.

The team holds an overall match record of 29-5-4 with 64 games won and 21 games lost, which secured them a Suburban West Conference championship.

The varsity team is led by senior Luke Kreienkamp,who is averaging a team-high 3.5 kills per game.

The semifinal game will take place Thursday, May 17 at Kirkwood against St. Louis University High School at 7:30 p.m.

Head coach Doug Ell believes his team has the skill to defeat SLUH despite past losses to them. However he stresses the importance of a strong fan base.

“We need fans there for support. These private schools have rabid fans and crowds to back their team up, and we need our school there to do the same,” he said. ”I promise it will be well worth your money and time to come out. The team has the ability to make it to State, and we need everyone there for the journey.”

Girls Lacrosse

Girls Lacrosse is on the right track towards victory in the State Tournament.

Due to the lack of teams, Girls Lacrosse participates in a State Tournament instead of Districts.

Senior Hannah Schneider said, “We are state champs if we win the tournament.”

With a 19-8 victory in the first round against Parkway South, the team played at Clayton High School against Ursaline on May 15.

The last time these two schools met up, Lafayette prevailed in a tight game.

“It was a really good game so hopefully tonight will be the same but we will pull through, we will see how it goes,” Schneider said.

Girls Soccer

Girls soccer continued their postseason run on May 15 at 7 p.m. against Marquette at Parkway South High School.

Freshman Anna Saunders was confident about the upcoming game. “I think we’ll win,” she said, “we beat [Marquette] 4-1 last time and I think we can do it again.”

At their last match, Lafayette won 2-0 against Parkway South.

When asked about the team’s potential for state, Saunders said, “I think we can go all the way, we’re really good this year.”

The Lancers defeated Caramel High School, the defending State champions from Indiana, 25-22 and 25-21 in the championship game to win a tournament loaded with powerhouse teams.

They started the day by going 0-3-1 in pool play, which included a loss to Caramel, and then had to win two playoff games to reach the semifinals against Marquette. Those two playoff game wins came against Francis Howell Central and Oakville, who went undefeated on the way to last year’s Missouri State championship.

“We started off pretty lackadaisical and really didn’t wake up until the playoffs started and once we woke up we were able to play to our full potential, which allowed us to beat the (43^rd) ranked team in the nation,” senior Luke Kreienkamp said.

In the championship match the Lancers were fueled by six kills from junior Alex Moll and a combined nine from seniors Brock Behrndt and Luke Kreienkamp, while senior Luke Robbe had 16 assists.

So far this season, the Lancers are 20-4-4 overall and boast a perfect 6-0 record in Conference play. Their next game will be a May 1 showdown with De Smet (22-1, 6-0), who beat them in the State quarterfinals last season.

“We have De Smet tomorrow and I think (the tournament) proves we can beat the better teams in the area,” Kreienkamp said, “we can’t make our own errors and we have to play mistake-free volleyball.”

That match is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Lafayette.

Things got rolling quickly for the Lancers, as they jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. However,  sophomore pitcher Cole Dupont ran into some trouble in the second inning, giving up a home run and allowing a total of five runs to score.

Despite the set back, the Lancers rallied back in the second half of the inning to tie up the score at five.

Defense and solid pitching dominated the rest of the game for both teams. Dupont found his groove, keeping the Patriots scoreless for the rest of the game.

Determined to keep their winning streak alive, the Lancers entered the bottom of the seventh inning with their bats alive.

Senior William Dupont quickly got on base to lead things off. Two at-bats later, senior Kyle Hanlon hit a single into left field, allowing the speedy Dupont to score the winning run all the way from second base.

The final score, for the second day in a row, was 6-5, another Lancer victory.

Their second place standing puts the Blues against the San Jose Sharks for the first round in their quest for the Stanley Cup.

The puck drops tomorrow, April 12, for the Blues at 6:30 p.m. downtown at the Scottrade Center.

Don’t have a ticket, but still want to be in the heart of the action? No problem.

Starting at 3 p.m. and going untill 10 p.m. there will be a St. Louis Blues Playoffs Rally and Block Paty on Washington Ave. at 14 St.

There will be live music, food and drinks, Blues personalities and alumis, children’s activites, the Pro Plan Performance Team from Purina Farms showcasing freestyle flying disc, and more.

At 4 p.m. there is an option to march the Blues’ mascot Louie to the Scottrade Center and for the rally outside the rink.

Admission is free so head downtown to support your STL Blues hockey team and be sure to cheer them on for their quest to finally bring the Stanley Cup to St. Louis.

Under the old system, District playoffs featured a four-team round robin in which two teams advanced to State from each District. Now, Class 6, where Lafayette resides, will be divided into four eight-team Districts whose champions will be decided by a single-elimination tournament.

As a result, the regular season will be reduced from ten weeks to nine and District playoffs will begin following the ninth week. Teams will be seeded in their Districts based on a regular season point system. The winner of each District championship, which will be played during Week 12, advances to the State semifinals.

“Every game is still important, but it puts more importance on every game because you want a high seed to be playing well when the playoffs start,” head football coach Boyd Manne said.

Lafayette will play in Class 6, District 1 which includes Eureka, Lafayette, Lindbergh, Marquette, Mehlville, Northwest (Cedar Hill), Oakville and Parkway South.

“I like it more because it gets us ready for the playoffs and keeps us sharp. Districts will mean more now,” John Voit said.

From March 22-24 the team played three games in Baltimore, MD where they took on top-ranked opponents.  Their record after a stretch of tough competition ended at 3-1.

Their first victory came against St. John’s Catholic Prep, a small boarding school in Frederick, MD, with a score of 11-8.

The Lancers’ toughest opponent was that of Georgetown Prep, the nation’s oldest Jesuit school and ranked 6^th in the nation, where they faced their only loss with a score of 15-0.

The team turned it around the following day and defeated another small boarding school in Maryland, St. Vincent Pallotti Prep, with a 12-7 victory.

After a successful three days of lacrosse at the end of spring break, the Lancers were proud of their efforts and look to have a great season.

Senior Ben Perez hopes to make his final season of lacrosse memorable.

 “We have a great team.  If we play together and play to our ability we can go far this season,” Perez said.

The Lancers defeated rival Marquette on March 14 with a score of 15-1. 

On March 29 the team will take on SLU High School at Crestview Middle School at 6 p.m. in hopes of a big victory.

Different from other State competitions, this one is organized by the Missouri State Dance Team Association (MDTA), not the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSSAA).

Head Coach Katie Whiteside said, “The MDTA divides the competitors by school size and then again by style of dance.  The divisions (much like MSHAA) are 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A.  Each of those divisions then includes categories of jazz, mix, hip hop, pom, kick and prop.”

Escadrille competed in two different categories: mix which is a combination of poms, jazz and kick as well as in the hip-hop category. Both dances are in the 6A division.

The dances are scored by four judges and given a score up to 100. Each routine has its own criteria for which the judges looks for to give out the top marks.

Whiteside said, “For mix, teams are evaluated on their appearance as a team, choreography, technique/execution of the dance, synchronization as a team and the overall general effect of the dance.  For hip hop, teams are evaluated on their appearance as a team, choreography, synchronization, group technique, communication/projection to the audience and the overall general effect.”

Overall the judges are really particular of what they are looking for and it all depends on the team and their performance.

The girls choreograph the dances with help from Whiteside and also mix their own music. Their mix routine was choreographed by team officers and seniors Jessica Carlson, Laura McGuire, MacKenzie Schwietz and Maria Tocco. The hip-hop dance was choreographed by Carlson, Schwietz and Tocco as well as sophomores Delaney Glazer and Allison Token. Glazer and Token also made the music mix.

Ecadrille has been preparing for the State competition all year, having practice from 3:20-5:30 p.m. every day and even some days before school.

“Because they [the Escadrille team] performs at events over the summer and at football and basketball games, Escadrille never stops,” Whiteside said then added, “Preparation for State is a year-long process that takes great dedication to the team.”

As captain it’s senior Maria Tocco’s job to make sure the girls are doing the absolute best and pushing them to achieve that.

“I’d give them good critiques when they were doing really well and tell them what they needed to fix,” Tocco said then explained further, “For every three or four bad critiques, I’d give them a good one, to keep their spirits up. I would over motivate them to get them to do what they needed.”

After winning first in the Lindbergh Competition for their mix routine, the team was feeling pretty confident about their status going into State. Tocco made sure that the team didn’t just pride themselves on the first win, but kept working for the next one.

“After getting first the team kind of just rested on their morals and we couldn’t do that because we needed to work even harder. I compared us to the other teams at State and told the girls to think about how hard they’re going to work because we already got first so they are going to want to beat us,” Tocco said.

With that said, all of the team’s hardwork paid off.

Tocco couldn’t be happier for her and her fellow teammates saying it was the best night of her life.

“Winning was almost unreal, it was like a dream because not only did we win, but it was my senior year, I was captain and had helped the girls achieve it. It was the best moment of my life and by far senior year,” Tocco said.

She added, “To see the other girls’ faces when we won, all holding hands, red faced and sweating because we were so nervous to see the results, then they finally called our name and we all screamed and cheered.”

Try outs for Escadrille season 2012-2013 start at the end of March.

Despite beating Parkway South by 30 just a week earlier, the Lady Lancers fell to the Patriots 68-60 in the Class 5 District 3 championship game.

The game had been a battle from tip-off as the Patriots showed they were the tougher team in the first half, forcing a 13 point deficit to lead 37-24 at the break.

However by the start of the second half, the Lady lancer’s came out with an offensive fire.  Senior guards Jordynn Martin and Kayla Hall helped push a one possession game after a 20 point third quarter, but the team struggled to score in the game’s closing minutes.

Martin led the Lady Lancers with 17 points and Hall added 12. Senior Ashley Hipp also chipped in 10.

The loss marked an end to the team’s season, but they still put together an accomplished resume.

They won the Suburban West Conference championship after going 8-0 in league play, and also defeated nationally ranked Incarnate Word. They also took second place in the annual preseason Randi Perkins tournament.

Also, four year starters Martin and Hall will now continue their careers at the collegiate level. Hall recently signed with Rockhurst, and Martin remains undecided.

“It’s kind of like bittersweet. While high school was great and I accomplished a lot, I’m excited for the next level,” Martin said.

Though they hoped to place in the top four according to senior Nicole Hoog, the team landed in 17th place with a total of 56 points.

Rock Bridge High School dominated the competition, finishing with 213 points in front of Glendale with 182 points, MICDS with 160 points and Parkway North with 148 points to complete the top four.

The best performance at State came from freshman Claire Kirchhoefer, who placed eighth in the 200 IM, the event in which she was ranked fifth in the area behind swimmers from both Parkway North and MICDS

The team finished their season with only one dual meet loss, to Parkway South. The Patriots also bested the team at the Conference meet, where Parkway South broke the Lady Lancers 26 year winning streak, beating them out by 70.5 points