Lafayette has not been gelling as a team in recent weeks. That changed on Tuesday.

The Commodores defeated Pontotoc 3-0 (25-19, 25-5, 25-21) inside the Lafayette Middle School gym.

It helped the Commodore remain perfect in Region 4-Class II with a 4-0 record.

In a match with two teams who are very even on paper, Lafayette (9-8) managed to be the dominant force the first two sets.

After trading points back-and-forth to begin the opening set, the Commodores pulled ahead for comfortable leads and a quick 2-0 advantage over Pontotoc (1-10, 0-3).

“We’ve struggling to be together for a while and tonight we didn’t,” Lafayette head coach Clint Jordan said. “We’ve known all year that if we can play together and kind of put aside when we do make a mistake that we can be very good. Tonight we were able to do that.”

The third set start out much like the previous two had gone with Lafayette coasting out to large cushion and Pontotoc struggling to put any kind of offense together. Midway through the set the

Warriors found some momentum and used a 10-3 run to tie the set up 18-18. After a timeout called by Jordan to settle his team’s nerves Lafayette manged to close out the match with a 7-3 run of their own.

“Honestly, one of the things that got (Pontotoc) out of sorts was our serving,” Jordan said. “Our serving was just excellent tonight. It made it really tough on them”

New surroundings
Much like their crosstown rivals are finishing up their home slate in a different gym so is Lafayette. The high school gym is closed while a new air conditioning system is being installed.

That means the Commodores will close out their home slate inside the middle school gym.

The relocation was something Jordan knew was coming at some point this season and took precautions to help his team be able to adjust quacking to a new layout. Once a week during summer practices and once a week during the regular season — before the gym was closed — the team practiced on the middle school court.

“It is different. This is a very low ceiling,” Jordan said of the LMS gym. “It’s got weird angles and it’s taken us a little while to (adjust). …I made sure that we got in here enough that when we were permanently over here it wasn’t foreign.”

Playoff implications
Lafayette hosts New Hope on Thursday and if the Commodores can come away with a win they will earn a berth into the MHSAA Class II state playoffs. Seeding will be determined later in the season as they are tied with Caledonia atop the region standings.  Lafayette and Caledonia will meet next Tuesday in Caledonia.