DATE: Tuesday, September 23, 1997           TAG: 9709230377

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   42 lines

MILLER: THIS CAVALIER IS SERVING UP SUCCESS

Fifteen minutes.

That's all it took for Princess Anne's Sasha Miller to achieve her 15 minutes of fame.

In a match that took - well, about 15 minutes - the senior led the Cavaliers to a 15-0, 15-0 victory over Bayside last week. Miller was the only server and of the 30 points the Cavaliers won, 26 of them were on her aces, two shy of the national high school record.

``I'm just consistent about it,'' is Miller's explanation for her outstanding service.

Cavaliers coach Jerry Rafal can't elaborate much more. ``She's a terrific server,'' he says. ``She's just very, very consistent.''

It's certainly not power. Miller is 5-foot-3, 107 pounds.

``It comes down to control,'' she says. ``Most people think you just whack it over the net. You have to look for your spots and place it. You just go for a good solid hit on the ball.''

Miller describes her serve as a floater and is modest about the effort that had the Princess Anne gym still abuzz the next night against First Colonial. For the record, Miller, the first server that night, floated her serve in, but the Cavaliers lost the point.

Miller doesn't even list the serve as the strength of the game she grew up playing with her mother. ``I set, that's my main thing,'' she says.

Prior to the game, Rafal had the team practicing to see who could serve the most in-bounds. Miller served 20 straight before Rafal decided the drill was taking too long.

Against Bayside, Miller claims she never noticed the score and it didn't hit her until after the game when the official recognized her feat. Miller says she just kept bumping the ball over, expecting each one to come back.

Shrugging her shoulders she says, ``I guess it was just my day.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Princess Anne's Sasha Miller served 26 aces in a 15-0, 15-0

volleyball victory over Bayside, two shy of a national high school

record.

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