Lady Bulldogs drop opener in two sets to Bernie

sports@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- It wasn't the season opener Sikeston was hoping for.

Hosting the defending Class 1 runner-ups, Sikeston fell in two sets, 25-16 and 25-8, to the Bernie Lady Mules Tuesday at the Sikeston Field House.

"This is a tough team," Sikeston head coach Steve Beydler said about Bernie. "The run some playsets and they're a scrappy team. They always have been. It's a nice bench-mark for us to see what we need to work on."

The Lady Bulldogs quickly fell behind 11-4 in the first set, namely because of first-game jitters. They quickly rebounded to come as close as 20-15 but managed just one more point before Bernie closed out the set on a 5-1 run.

"We got into a quick hole and then we kind of worked out of it," Beydler said. "We hung behind five points or so and we just stayed there."

The traditional Class 1 power continued their uprising in the second set blasting out to a 10-3 lead behind the powerful stroke of Tori Lowrey.

"Tori is just a player that even if my setter is about to fall down, she can throw it up and attack the ball," Bernie head coach Erin Hoffman said. "It's not always good, but she's going to attack it."

Sikeston's inability to execute clean passes didn't help matters as well.

"The second set, (Bernie) came out boom, boom, boom," said Beydler. "We had trouble passing, which made it tough for Lauren (Beydler) to get to the ball to set it. There were problems passing and we couldn't get the offense running.

"We ended up playing reaction ball instead of playing aggressive ball."

The Lady Mules (1-0) went up 19-6 at one point. They continued their onslaught by capping the match with a 6-2 run giving them the straight-set win.

"I've got three freshman starting for me and the more they played, the less they looked like freshman," Hoffman said. "They started getting comfortable with the older crew I got. I think it's going to get better and better."

Sikeston's Esther Chinwuko finished with a team-high four kills. Ricci Tidwell and Elizabeth Sewell added three more each. Lauren Beydler had 10 assists and Tidwell led with two aces.

Sikeston will take nearly a week off until they see the court again when they host Cape Central Monday at 6 p.m.

The Sikeston junior varsity pulled out a three-set match before Tuesday's varsity contest, 19-25, 25-23 and 25-10.

"They slowly got their stuff together and had a pretty good match," said Beydler. "I'm very pleased with their match. The future of Sikeston volleyball looks very, very bright."