STARKVILLE — It’s been four weeks of learning and growth steeped in healthy competition for Starkville’s volleyball team, which is already deep into its summer spree of workouts and on-court scrimmages against other teams in preparations for the season’s start on August 1.
The ever-present shouts and yells are only drowned out by the loud smack of the volleyball slamming into the court for a score, and for head coach Meghan Mullane it’s been exciting to see her squad attack the offseason with such fervor.
“I feel like we have been doing really good. As far as how the overall team has gone, this is probably the most motivated group and the best as far as – we don’t have a lot of drama,” Mullane said. “We get in, we work hard. It seems like there is a common goal of wanting to be successful, and as a coach you really can’t ask for more. They have great attitudes and great work ethics and they come in everyday and give everything they have.”
What has the Yellow Jackets so motivated? Well, mainly their disappointing 12-25-1 finish last season. The Jackets struggled at times to beat foes they were capable of cruising past, something Mullane said was more of a mindset issue than a talent one. It took the most part of the regular season for the team to recognize they were better than they thought, but by then it was too late. This time around things are different and the large swath of returning players aren’t looking for a repeat year.
“I think they saw that midway or to the end (of the season) that we were more talented than what they thought,” she said. “In the previous year we had been really successful and we graduated seven and I think so many people put those girls on pedestals just for the caliber of athletes that they were that they just came back the following season and just assumed they weren’t going to accomplish as much. That narrative kind of played out, and then when they started competing against (top) teams and took a set from Madison Central, and they took a set from Oxford and they took a set from Germantown, and a lot of the games they were ahead and then they can’t finish out a game and end up losing even though we were ahead the entire set. I think that was really frustrating for them to see because it started changing that narrative in their minds that, ‘Oh wait, we actually aren’t as bad as we thought we were. We’re actually pretty good.’”
Safe to say the Jackets learned their lesson. There’s no question about how good they are and no question about their work ethic.
“So far it’s been good,” she said. “The girls have been working really hard and are getting excited about the upcoming season.”
Starkville boasts an all-star and a rising star on its roster for the upcoming year. Campbell Davis, a rising senior who will play in the Mississippi Association of Coaches All-Star game as a part of the North squad on July 8 in Brandon is joined by Car’eyauna Petty, an incoming junior who played in the North Mississippi Volleyball Coaches Association Rising Stars game in early June. The two highlight a squad that brings back experience with some fresh new faces stepping in as well.
“I feel like we have a lot of experience at the net,” Mullane said. “Right now I think our biggest growth area has been with our passers and our setting. We graduated our setter that we had for three years, so those positions are really the ones we are filling with some new faces and some returning faces. But really they are going to be key positions and they are going to be (filled by) people who have been to lean on the seniors for the last three years and are now going to have to step up this year.”
Up next for the team on their grind to get better this summer are more games this week. The Jackets have a few summer scrimmage games on Friday with some more likely looming for them on the horizon.
“We’re just trying to get as much experience and touches on the ball as possible, because although I do have more girls playing club (volleyball) than I’ve ever had in the program, I would say our volleyball is behind the Jackson area and the Southaven area,” she said. “The more we play the better we are going to be.”
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