CALEDONIA — Volleyball doesn’t discriminate.
Whether you’re like Elisha Collins and have played the sport for years at the club and high school levels, or you’re like Alaina Nickoles and just starting out, there are always lessons to be learned.
On a night of firsts Tuesday, the lesson Nickoles learned was a little more jarring in the Caledonia High School volleyball team’s 3-0 victory against New Hope. Set scores were 25-5, 25-10, 25-17.
Cara Hopper helped welcome Nickoles to the court with a laser of a serve that struck her in the chest and went for an ace to clinch the first set.
Instead of getting discouraged by the play, Nickoles and her teammates celebrated it as if it was their indoctrination to the sport.
“That has never happened,” Nickoles said. “It hurt. I wasn’t expecting it, either.”
Nickoles admitted the serve stung until the second set. She couldn’t help but smile after she heard the crowd go “Ooohh” in response to the serve hitting her. It didn’t take long for her to re-focus and to remember the words of her coach, Laura Lee Holman.
“She mainly tells us to move our feet and to get down low,” Nickoles said. “It is like a defensive slide in basketball so you can get in front of the ball and square up to it.”
For the record, New Hope earned its first point as a program on a service error. Dallas Dale had the first dig, Leigh Atkins had the first kill, and Ashley Martian had the first assist. There will be plenty more firsts for the Lady Trojans this year in their initial season of high school volleyball.
While nearly each serve brought a new experience for New Hope, Caledonia has the advantage of experience and tradition. Coming off an appearance in the second round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 1 playoffs, the Lady Confederates are adjusting to a 6-2 offense that features Collins and Morgan Smith as setters. A year ago, Collins earned the majority of her playing time as a hitter as Caledonia used a 5-1, or a one-setter system.
Entering this season, Collins, who has played setter with her Tupelo Juniors club team, knew she wanted to play the position in high school, so she tried to convince coach Samantha Brooks she could do it. Even though Collins’ height (she is at least 6-foot) may be atypical for a high school setter, it didn’t prevent Brooks from moving Collins into the position.
On Tuesday, she showed the range and the soft hands needed to make plays all over the court. A perfect example came in the third set on a pass that forced her to her left toward the Caledonia bench. Collins moved into position and cradled the ball up to the left antenna. Like Nickoles learned, though, Elisabeth Shepherd discovered she needed to keep moving and follow Collins to get into the proper position to attempt a kill. When she didn’t, the ball dropped to the floor in front of the scorer’s table, giving a point to New Hope.
“I probably pushed the set out too far, but the hitter was supposed to follow me,” Collins said. “She really didn’t do that, but my set was a little too wide. When a ball is passed short and the setter goes to the ball, the hitter, we’re supposed to follow and stay in front of the setter so we can get momentum to hit and put the ball away.”
Collins plays every position with the Tupelo Juniors. She said the adjustment she and her teammates are making to the 6-2 will take time, especially for all of the players to learn where they need to be in every possible instance.
For Collins, who had six of her seven kills in the first set, the transition likely will be quicker, in part because of the training she has received at the club level.
“We were trained to always set a ball,” Collins said. “If we got served to, we had to set it, no matter what because you had more control. We did numerous drills where we had to set. We would get punished — suicides (a running drill) and stuff — if we passed a ball that we could supposed to set. I guess that is how I was trained just by telling myself, ‘I have to set it, I have to set it,’ no matter what.”
Brooks praised Collins for her court awareness in tracking the ball and giving Caledonia a chance to score. She said she feels comfortable with the two-setter approach and believes her players will learn how to make it work.
“We were in pressure situations here, and I love the pressure situations in the beginning of the season because it gives the girls a chance to work out the kinks,” Brooks said. “I try not to over-coach. I try to let them work things out. They are skilled and they know, usually, for the most part, what they have done incorrectly. Sometimes I need to reiterate that. Sometimes I let it be.”
Lessons like that also will help New Hope grow as a program. Holman admitted she will mature with her players as the season progresses. Still, she felt the team recovered after being nervous in the first set. She said she saw plenty of encouraging signs in the final two sets when the players appeared to relax and to feel comfortable diving and hustling to balls. The highlight may have come in the second set when Madison Thrasher and Nickoles had digs on consecutive attacks by Collins. Sarah Freeman ended the set with a kill.
Holman hopes to see more exchanges like that when New Hope plays Friday at West Lowndes. She also
“Caledonia did a great job of serving,” said Holman, who credited plenty of New Hope fans for showing up and providing vocal support. “I think that is a weakness we have, but that will be fixed in practice. But I was impressed with my girls and their response to the situation. … The last game there were certain possessions where we looked like we do at practice. … I think once we had the first person dive and the ball went in the air and it went over the net and we survived the play, I think everybody was kind of like, ‘Whew, OK,’ and I think that deer-in-the-headlights look went away.”
For Nickoles, the memory of her debut won’t leave a mark, but the first match reinforced things Holman has been teaching in practice and how she and her teammates need to keep improving so they can move on to the next lesson.
“We have learned a lot in three weeks,” said Nickoles, a junior. “We work our butt off in practice. (Coach Holman) is learning, too. It is a good learning experience and it is really fun. I think we did pretty good for the first game and playing a team that made the playoffs last season.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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