Perrin bests Ranger for bi-district championship

Perrin moved on in the Class 1A volleyball playoffs with a 3-0 win Tuesday, Nov. 5 over Ranger. 

The team will play in an area round match against Saint Jo at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7 in Decatur.

Lady Pirate coach Rebekah Bland said her squad played “pretty well” but there were some issues, particularly in the second set where Perrin had to recover from a large deficit.

“It seemed like we were just going through the motions, and that’s just not us,” Bland said. “We were able to turn it around and played well in the third (set).”

The Lady Bulldogs stayed even with Perrin for most of the first set, leading 5-3 at one point. A Langham kill broke serve with a Reilly serving point, finished by another kill from Langham, tying the game at five. Kannan Collier used back-to-back aces to open a seven-point Lady Pirate string and take a 13-6 lead.

Single serving points from Green, Pool, Shiloh Wilson, Reilly and Collier would end the first set with Perrin on top, 25-19.

Perrin fell behind 12-4 in the second set but slowly began to turn things around with Mckieran Murphy’s single serving point and a three-point run by Lucchese Reilly which cut the deficit to four. Michelle Akin later added a pair, helped by a Murphy kill on one of them, to draw within two at 20-18. 

A single point by Adalynn Pool, finished by a Kennadee Langham kill, cut the deficit to one. The squads exchanged serves before Reilly finished the job with a four-point string to take the game, 25-22.

Mackenzie Green opened set three with a seven-point serving run, including a pair of aces. Reilly broke things wide open with a trio of aces to start an 11-point serving run to put Perrin ahead 22-4.

Scarlett Whitworth set up match point with an ace for a 24-6 lead. Langham later finished the job with a kill to end the match, 25-9.