CALEDONIA — The Caledonia High School volleyball team is right where it wants to be.
Buoyed by an approach that has eschewed individual accolades in favor of team effort, Caledonia (16-7) will play host to Aberdeen at 6 tonight in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 1 tournament. The winner of that match will play the winner of the Lewisburg-St. Andrew’s match on Saturday at a time and place to be announced. The winner of that match will advance to the state tournament.
The thought of Caledonia having a chance to go that far might have seemed implausible to some, especially since the Lady Confederates had to replace six seniors. But senior captain Ashley Langford and classmate Stevi Carter said the team has come together on and off the court in an effort to help it get to Mississippi College, the site of the state tournament.
“We have good players, solid front-row hitters, good diggers, good back-row players, good servers, we’re consistent with our hitters, and we have all played together for a long time,” Carter said. “We know each other’s moves.”
Caledonia High coach Samantha Brooks said her team will be ready for Aberdeen, one its best rivals. Caledonia swept Aberdeen in three sets two times in the regular season, but she knows that won’t mean much tonight because the Lady Bulldogs are a “scrappy” team that will make the Lady Confederates work for everything.
Brooks doesn’t feel like that will be a problem, though, because Caledonia’s strength this season is the sum of its parts. When one player is having a bad game, the rest of them are there to pick her up. Sophomore Morgan Smith has transitioned nicely into the setter’s position, while classmates Elisha Collins, Elisabeth Shepherd, Clara Wallace, and Taylor Hayes and juniors Cara Hopper and Sara Freeman play multiple roles.
“They have a good relationship on and off the court,” Brooks said. “They work well together. They have a lot of positive spirit. There is not a lot of ‘I’. They mesh well. They have realized there is no ‘I’ in team.”
Brooks said togetherness of this season’s team makes up for the fact that the players might not have as much experience as the players on last season’s team. She said it is imperative for teams to have a “jell” that keeps them together. She said the players have embraced that by supporting each other and owning up to their mistakes, but Brooks said the team wins and loses together, and would love to continue its winning spree.
Langford and Carter hope to put that plan into action tonight. They said the team has hung out as a group on and off the court. As a result, they said the players have meshed and erased a “power dynamic” that Carter said kind of “out of balance” is more shared this season.
“Our biggest thing is staying together,” said Langford, who also is a member of the slow-pitch softball team. “When we’re all on fire, nobody can stop us.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.