Pope John Paul II’s Lady Jaguars opened the season with a 25-11, 25-18, 22-25, 25-16 victory over the Archbishop Hannan Lady Hawks Tuesday at PJP.

“It’s good to win the home opener,” PJP first-year coach Earl Gervais said. “It’s good to get that out of the way and get the butterflies out of your stomach and to move on from there.”

PJP’s Paige Bourquard showed off her talents in this match, putting down 15 kills and she posted three aces in the first game. Bourquard said everyone did well for the Lady Jaguars.

Archbishop Hannan's Natalie Powell goes up high for a kill attempts, as Pope John Paul II's Taylor Copeland (3) and Jessica Gros (23) are prepared on defense during Tuesday's opening match at PJP. Also pictured for Hannan includes Kimmy Kirsch (14) and Stephanie Gonzales (5). (Staff Photo by Chris Kinkaid)

Gervais said Bourquard is going to be all over the court.

“Paige is going to be our anchor. That’s just the way she is,” Gervais said. “She’ll do what it takes to get the job done. I’m just really excited to be working with her.”

PJP got off to a good start. In the first game, the Lady Jaguars were up 4-3, but scored seven points in a row to take an 11-3 lead. Bourquard had three aces in the spurt.

Eventually, they increased the lead to 20-4, but Hannan’s Sydney Finch scored on a dink to make it 20-5. The Lady Jaguars got the lead up to 24-7, but had trouble throughout the match getting that 25th point. The Lady Hawks battled back with four straight points, but a serve out of bounds gave PJP a one-game lead.

In the second contest, Hannan, who has just two seniors and two juniors, jumped out to a 7-1 lead. Kimmy Kirsch made a pass to Kim Nillson, who put down a kill to cap the run.

Kirsch finished with 16 assists, six aces and three kills. Nillson had eight kills and one ace.

Then PJP seized the momentum, posting 10 consecutive points to take an 11-8 advantage. Hannan scored and made it 11-9, but PJP responded with two in a row.

Later on, the Lady Jaguars got to game point with a 24-14 lead, but had trouble finishing once again. Hannan continued to fight and posted the next four points, but PJP finally captured the 25-18 victory.

Despite being down by two games, the Lady Hawks never gave up. The Lady Jaguars got out to a 9-5 lead with Adrianna Cutura getting an ace. She had seven for the match.

The Lady Hawks came back and caught PJP at 11-11. Natalie Powell tallied two of her four aces during the run. The game went back-and-forth as neither team could gain control. Hannan took the lead for good at 18-17 and was able to increase it to 23-18 before forcing a fourth game with a 25-22 win.

The fourth contest was competitive early on as the teams played to a 3-3 tie. After that, the Lady Jaguars went on an 11-0 run and were ahead 14-3.

Hannan was able to trim the advantage to 16-9, but Taylor Copeland, who also had four blocks, put down back-to-back kills and it was 18-9. Erin Oteri’s kill put PJP ahead 20-9.

Copeland came up with another kill, giving her team a 22-9 edge.

Hannan came back, but the Lady Jaguars went on to win 25-16.

For the Lady Hawks, Brooke Laigast finished with 18 digs, while Marissa Trapani had seven digs. Meagan Finch added four kills, two blocks and one ace, while Sydney Finch had two kills, two aces and a block. Stephanie Gonzales dished out three assists, while totaling one kill, one block and an ace. Natalie Powell contributed four aces, one block and a kill.

Hannan coach Jennifer Pujol talked about her young team’s performance.

“I see some things that I like and I see some things I don’t like, especially rotation wise. So we’re going to change some things up (Wednesday) and hopefully be able to run a better offense,” Pujol said.