cathedral ceiling home hard to cool

Turned on the ac when I got to the home and after approx. 3 hours, the temp in the house did not get below 86 degrees. 1800 sq.ft home with high ceilings. temp. coming out of registers was between 72-75 degrees (return vent was 85) The air handler had some air coming from the unit as well as from the joint between duct and air handler. I measured the temp of the air coming out of the air handler and duct connection and it was 95 degrees. Although this wasn’t conditioned air coming out, could this be a cause for the house not cooling down properly? Furnace also short cycled. I stated in the report to have it eval. by hvac contractor and to have the ducts sealed. Just trying to figure why it was so hard to cool down that house. thanks.

Could be 100 different reasons, all of them having to do with a non-functioning Air conditioning system. You did what you should have; have it evaluated/serviced/ repaired by a licensed HVAC contractor. Keep it simple, no need to try and troubleshoot, that is the contractors job.