The Perryville Pirates girls volleyball team started its season with a victory over the Central Rebels in three sets on August 27.
The Pirates won all three sets 25-17. They were led offensively by Paige Berkbigler, who had 11 assists, 8 kills, and 6 digs. Charlie Gerler also had 11 assists, as well as 4 kills, 7 blocks, and 5 digs.
Other standout performances in the first match include Emma Blechle, who had 7 kills, 2 blocks, and 5 digs, Lexi Schemel, who finished with 3 assists and 11 digs, and Kaeli Klaus with 5 kills.
The Pirates then moved on to the Woodland Tournament, which began Monday afternoon in Marble Hill.
The second seeded Pirates advanced to the finals of the tournament by beating Greenville in three sets, and Woodland in four sets, setting them up for a showdown Friday night against the first seed of the tournament, Leopold.
The Pirates won in four sets against Leopold to secure the tournament championship. In the finals, standouts included senior Emma Blechle, who led the team in kills with 10, and Kaeli Klaus, who served for 6 aces, senior Paige Berkbigler, who had 9 kills, 4 aces, 6 digs, and received all-tournament honors, and junior Charli Gerler, who had 6 kills, 1 ace, a team leading 6 blocks, and 7 digs. Gerler received all-tournament honors as well.
Perryville head coach Liz Meyer was confident heading into the tournament, saying it was her expectation to make a deep run.
“The expectation before we started was to win the championship game,” Meyer said. “We have a really strong team this school year, a lot of returning starters, a healthy team so far, and we hope to keep that going throughout the whole season. We have a lot of talent and a lot a talent spread all around the court, not just in a couple people.”
Meyer said this tournament victory should be a great confidence boost, as the Pirates are now 4-0 heading into the regular season and the Dig for Life Tournament.
“We’re playing in the red division, which is the higher division of that tournament, so we’ll see a lot of good teams again,” Meyer said.
Meyer said that even though another tournament is on the horizon, the team is solely focused on their upcoming conference matchup with Ste. Genevieve Thursday, as being good in the district is the team’s top priority.
Perryville will travel to Ste. Genevieve to start the conference season Thursday night, with varsity action scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.
