By Justin Fedich | The Selma Times-Journal

The Meadowview Christian varsity girls’ volleyball team has been perfect on paper, but head coach Tim Burton thinks Thursday’s game was far from perfect.

The Trojans defeated Chilton Christian Academy 25-23, 25-20, 25-22 Thursday to move to 2-0 on the season. Despite starting the season with two straight-set victories, Burton wasn’t happy with what he saw from his team.

“They pulled it out being as good as they are, I guess, but it didn’t look like volleyball,” Burton said.

While the Trojans’ win wasn’t perfect, it was a victory that was, for the most part, hardly in doubt. The first set was back and forth, but Meadowview held the lead throughout nearly the entire set.

The second set got off to a shaky start for the Trojans. Meadowview lost the first six points of the set and had a tough time making any sort of comeback early on.

Meadowview was down 11-3 and Burton had seen enough, so he called a timeout. Two points later, the Trojans dug an even deeper hole and trailed 13-3. Then, Maggie Tipton won six straight points off her serve and sparked the team back within striking distance.

Seven points later, Meadowview trailed 13-10.  The Trojans weren’t done there. Down 16-12, Shelby Boswell was on serve. A few moments later, Meadowview had its first lead of the set at 17-16.

“They got excited, got up and started playing decent,” Burton said.

The Patriots regained the lead at 18-17, but the Trojans struck the final blow when they rattled off seven straight points again to take a 24-18 lead.

Meadowview kept the momentum going into the third set. The Trojans got off to a 7-1 lead and maintained a lead all the way until the final point despite a late comeback attempt from Chilton Christian.

“I think all in all, they played a pretty decent game,” Burton said. “I just wasn’t happy with them.”

When the Trojans walked out of the locker room after the game, they looked as though they had just lost the match.

“I walked in the locker room and said, ‘It’s not often I’m not happy after a win,’” Burton said.

Although the Trojans are now 2-0 and have yet to lose a set, Burton knows his team can play better. He said the team needs to do a better job of playing with a sense of control and focus.

Burton was hard on his team because he believes his Trojans can be just as good, if not better, than last year’s Meadowview team, which finished third in the state.

“This team has got big potential,” Burton said. “They’re as good as the team I had last year. They’ll come a long way.”

Meadowview’s junior varsity team also won without dropping a set. The Trojans ran by their opponent 25-18, 25-8. Burton was much more impressed with the effort of his junior varsity team Thursday.

“Most of them stayed down to earth and played cool, calm and collected,” Burton said. “Their control is about where it should be for a JV team.”