P'VILLE FOILS CHS DEBUT

Cape Central's girls volleyball team began the Sheila Midget era on a losing note with a straight-set loss to Perryville at Cape Central High on Monday night.

But, despite the 15-8, 15-12 loss, the much-improved performance of the Lady Tigers raised hope for the new season.

"Cape has improved tremendously," said Perryville coach Amy Birk. "She's (Midget) got a good program going."

Central started slowly in the first set, falling behind 6-0, before regrouping and pulling to within three points midway through the contest at 8-5.

"We started out really slow," said Midget. "I think the kids were really nervous because they had learned so much and they kept telling me that they hoped they could just remember where they were supposed to be and that kind of thing."

Cape Central could get no closer as the Lady Pirates maintained a three-point edge at 11-8, before reeling off four straight to close out the game.

The Lady Tigers came roaring back in the exciting second set as they jumped out to a 3-0 lead early.

Perryville knotted the score at three, before another run by Central put it up by a 6-3 margin.

The visitors mounted another charge to finally gain their first lead in the second set at 7-6. Then five straight points by the Lady Pirates extended their advantage to 12-6.

Cape Central closed to 14-12 before Perryville was able to notch match point for the win.

"My girls were, well, a little shaky tonight," said Birk. "We're trying to run a quick offense and trying to run some plays. We've got a lot of ironing out to do before our next match. But overall our hitting and serving was good and we showed a lot of hustle."

The Perryville service game was solid all night, led by nine points with five aces from Emily Amberger and eight points and five aces from Katie Kutz. Kutz also had six kills and Lisa Pecault had seven assists.

Assessing her first game with the Cape Central program, Midget said, "Our effort and enthusiasm was great. We missed some serves, which should never happen, and we let some service balls hit the floor, which shouldn't happen. But those are very fixable mistakes and I think the longer we play, the better we'll get."

Sarah Wernsman led the Lady Tigers with six points with two aces, while Rachel Spinks had five kills.

Perryville won the JV contest 15-5, 15-8.