Perry girls volleyball coach Fred Mann and his team have been busy the last two weeks. A couple matches during the week and two weeks in a row playing in invitationals. But the plan all along was to focus primarlly on a couple early power-ranking matches. It's proved to serve the Pumas well.

Perry won nailbiters in the first two sets Tuesday night and dominated Chaparral in the third to come away with a 25-22, 25-22, 25-9 triumph in a Division I match at Perry High.

"We wanted to make sure we had energy for some matches coming up," Mann said. "We've played a lot of matches the last two weeks with the tournaments we've been in. We tried to rest our players and be ready for Mountain Pointe last week and tonight against Chaparral."

Tuesday's match was the 22nd this season for Perry, which now boasts an overall mark of 18-4, 8-0 in power-ranking matches. The Pumas edged Mann's former school, Mountain Pointe, 3-2, last week. They expected more of the same from Chaparral (11-6, 6-3) and got it the first two sets.

Perry's ability, however, to make the plays late in the first two sets bought it a 2-0 lead. The Pumas tore through a seemingly disheartened Chaparral in the final set attacking the Firebirds to quick death.

Chaparral was within striking distance late in each of the first two sets. Neither team led by more than three points in the opener and it was tied at 21 a final time. From there three kills from Perry junior outside hitter Taylor Knoll (match-high 11 kills) were essentially the difference.

Chaparral had to battle back from a 6-0 deficit in the second. The Firebirds managed to tie it three times, but never led. Chaparral fought off three set points, but freshman middle Ryann Davis slammed home the set winner. Davis finished with eight kills, including six in the set. Three other teammates joined Knoll and Davis in the kill parade -- senior middle Madison LeBlanc (nine kills), junior opposite Hannah Stevenson and sophomore outside Amanda Aguirre. The latter two contributed seven kills apiece.

"Our goal was to beat Mountain Pointe and Chaparral and now that we''ve done that we're pretty fired up", Mann said.

Chaparral coach Kolette Hysong held a lengthy postgame talk with her team that was still going on when support staff at Perry turned out the lights. Chaparral was led unofficially by junior middle hitter Lauren Stivrins. Stivrins was limited to eight kills as Perry defensed her well up front and in the back row.

Perry gets a full week off from matches as it next faces Basha on the road on Sept. 30). It will be a murderers' row of opponents from there for the Pumas. They'll face Basha, Gilbert, Desert Vista, Chandler, Highland, Hamilton and Corona del Sol in its next seven matches.Chaparral is off from power-ranking matches until Sept. 30 as well when it resumes play at Mesa High.