First volleyball scrimmage set Friday

Summer workouts for volleyball started Wednesday, with about 30 high school girls showing up to get ready for the 2018 season.

Coaches and players will have only two days on the court to prepare before the first scrimmage set for Friday in Clyde.

“It is really tough having only a couple of days to  practice before scrimmages start,” head coach Kimberly Hill said. “And our first regular season game is Tuesday.”

While the number of girls showing up for the new season increased and will allow the coaches to put three teams on the floor this year, the group is young.

The varsity Lady Lions are returning four starters from last year – two juniors and two sophomores. The squad lost four seniors off of last year’s team and have no seniors moving up this year.

“There are no seniors and only a total of three juniors,” Hill said. “We have 12 sophomores and 14 freshmen, so we are going to be very young this year.”

The coach said she is glad to see numbers up overall, which allows the program to put a varsity and two JV squads on the court.

“Having three teams gives the girls a lot of time on the court, which is really important to our success,” she said. “We will be able to keep girls on the floor much more than if we only have two teams like last year.”

Hill said that senior Cassidy Schedule is actually coming back as part of the team, but she is still recovering from surgery required to fix an injury last year.

“Cassidy is going to help us as a manager because she won’t get released to play until November at the earliest,” Hill said.

Another challenge to having a young team is leadership.

“We are very young, especially without seniors, so we need some leaders to step up,” the coach said. “The girls seem excited and are already working hard on their own, but we are looking for leaders to emerge.”

Hill also reported that the 15 players who took part in team camp earlier in July are starting to lead the way.

“The coach that came in to conduct camp was really impressed and so was I,” Hill said. “One of the bright spots was seeing some of the younger players really step up their level of play.”

Scrimmages Set

The teams will be busy over the first two weeks, playing in a pair of scrimmages, round-robin tournaments, the season opener, and hosting a local tournament.

All three teams will travel to Clyde on Friday for practice games starting at 9:00 a.m. against Clyde and Early teams. Each squad will play two scrimmage matches, with the varsity set to start at 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon. Both JV teams will play at 9:00 a.m., with a second match to follow.

The Lady Lions will scrimmage in Breckenridge on Saturday, also starting at 9:00 a.m.

Teams participating include Breckenridge’s Lady Bucks, Mineral Wells, Munday, and Albany.

“We are hoping that each of our teams will get three games, but we don’t know for sure,” Hill said.

The Lady Lions will open the regular season on the road next Tuesday, Aug. 7 in Jim Ned. Games are scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m.

Albany will also host the local annual tournament on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 10-11.

Ten varsity teams are entered, along with 16 JV and freshmen squads that will play in two divisions.

The Lady Lions are members of District 6-2A this season along with previous district opponents Hawley, Moran, and Woodson. Joining the district are Newcastle, Ranger, and Strawn.

District competition is set to start Sept. 8 in Strawn.