PERRYVILLE SERVES UP QUICK LOSS TO LADY TIGER SPIKERS

Perryville volleyball coach Tim Steffens, the area's veteran coach, has seen a few things in the past six years.

So coach, ever seen about a player serve 15 straight points?

Never -- until Monday night.

After Cape Girardeau Central (0-2) began its home opener with a serve, Perryville's Jaimee Mueller served 15 consecutive points.

Perryville, which improved to 1-2 after losses to Notre Dame and Ste. Genevieve last week, went on to beat the young Lady Tigers 15-0, 15-6.

Had second-year Central coach April Morgan McClintock, who has witnessed a fair number of games as a high school and collegiate player, ever seen anything of the like?

"No, never in my whole entire life," she said. "I asked (the team) when they came over, `did we just sit through a game? because that was only five minutes.'"

Steffens said his team, which went 20-8-2 last year, sought to turn the tide of a surprisingly slow start to the season.

"Our girls needed a win and they came out fired up," he said. "We played pretty well. One thing we did was block some balls early and shut them down like that."

During the first game, senior Renee Kaempfe, at 6 feet an imposing figure over the small Lady Tigers, had three blocks that scored points. She had four blocks in the match.

Also in the game, senior hitter Laura Ernst looked impressive as she had three consecutive kills for points. She finished with six kills.

Despite the inauspicious start, Central showed life in the second game. After Perryville scored the first three points, Central got on the board when Perryville made a hitting error.

"We can't lose a game and then come out and start playing or we can't get behind six points and then start playing. It has to do with being young," said Morgan McClintock, whose team went 8-15 last year, her first year as coach, after winning just three matches the previous two years combined.

The Lady Pirates then pushed the lead to 13-1 before Central scored five straight on the serving of Katie Cozby to make the score 13-6. During the run Cozby had two aces and Jessica Balogh and Melissa Altenthal each had kills.

Perryville then scored two points to end the match.

Said Morgan McClintock: "We're very, very young. I have one girl who played varsity last year. This is definitely a learning year for us. It's going to be a long season, but it's going to be a learning season and we have a lot, lot to learn."