WOODLAND — The Perryville Lady Pirates (3-2) took part in the annual Woodland Volleyball Tournament last week, and despite a somewhat disappointing opener, came out on top in the consolation bracket after beating the host Cardinals (2-2) 3-2 in the consolation final.
“The tournament went okay,” said Perryville coach Liz Meyr. “We lost in the first round, which was disappointing. That’s the first game we’ve lost in the Woodland tournament. The girls had a good streak going. We beat Meadow Heights two sets in a row and then we let them come back and win three sets, so that put us in the consolation bracket right away, which is unfortunate to not be able to earn that spot back again. But after that, the girls looked pretty good.”
In the opening game, Perryville led 2-0 — 25-15, 25- 14 — before the Lady Panthers stormed back to claim the final three sets 14-25, 15-25, 7-15, to claim a 3-2 victory.
Allyson Burns led the Lady Pirates with 9 kills, 16 assists and 14 digs, followed by freshman Kaeli Klaus, who had 8 kills, 14 assists, 18 digs, and 1 block, along with junior Sunny Carroll who had 8 kills and 4 blocks. Emma Blechle finished with 5 aces and 25 digs, Lydia Schlimpert had 7 blocks and 2 aces, and Lexi Schemel had 24 digs.
In the second round on Friday, Perryville squared off against Greenville (2-2) and came away with a three-set victory, winning 3-0 (25-5, 25-17, 25-19).
Meyr highlighted the individual performance of several players. Burns led the team with 4 aces, Blechle had 20 digs and 6 kills, Schamel had 15 digs, Klaus had 18 assists, Burns had 13 assists. Schlimpert had 11 kills and 2 blocks and Carroll had 6 kills.
In the consolation final, Perryville dropped the first set 16-25, then won the second set 25-21, before falling behind 2-1 after dropping the third set 26-24.
The Lady Pirates rallied in the fourth set to take a 25-10 win before closing out the five-set victory 15-13. In the consolation final, Schemel finished with 36 digs, Blechle had 18 digs and 9 kills; Klaus had 20 digs, 13 assists and 16 kills; Burns had 28 assists; Schlimpert had 9 kills and 4 blocks; and sophomore Jersi Geile had 3 blocks.
Meyr praised the performance of her younger players, who were pulled up to the varsity squad to fill holes in the roster left by injuries.
“Our freshman that we pulled up, Klaus, she’s been working really hard to fill some shoes on the court,” Meyr said. “We had to pull up a JV player, Jersi Geile. She’s been stepping up to the plate. We’ve got those three injured players right now — two from rolled ankles and one from an ACL repair — so we’re bringing up a lot of girls to try to fill those spots until they’re all healed and back on the court.”
Meyr said she’s fairly pleased with how things have been going so far.
“I think that we are doing as good as we can for the cards we’ve been given,” Meyr said. “The injuries have given us a lot of time to build up other players who might not have been playing on the varsity court initially, but they’re stepping up and doing what they need to do and earning those spots.”
