STARKVILLE — It was a celebratory occasion at the Starkville Academy gym as the school hosted its first ever volleyball games. The middle school, junior varsity, and varsity teams took on Tupelo Homeschool, serving up the first fixtures of the program’s inaugural season.
While the middle schoolers won their match, both JV and varsity teams lost in straight sets. The visiting Titans served well throughout the game, giving the Vols trouble at the net as well with a few spikes.
There were always going to be some growing pains for a new program, and despite the defeat, the Vols players came away feeling good about finally getting a taste of the action. For them it’s about continuing to learn the game and, importantly, learning how to play it in sync.
“It was good,” Karsen Owen said of their opportunities. “We just didn’t play it out as well as we could. It’s more about connections honestly.”
“Not going to lie, I was incredibly nervous for the first serve of the varsity game,” teammate Catherine Scoggins added. “I’m new to that, and it was nerve-wracking, but I had to remember to just get it over, one play at a time.”
Head coach Allison Woolbright has some experience in building a program from the ground up. At New Hop, Woolbright turned a team just learning the ropes into state championship contenders in just a few years.
“We had a lot of mistakes that we need to work on correcting,” Woolbright said. “Staying out of the net, poor serve returning, I’ve told the girls it’s difficult and we have to continue working on that. They had some good servers and it would have been difficult for any team to return those serves, so I’m proud of how we did.”
The Vols started each set well, particularly the first set where they jumped out to a 5-1 lead with Scoggins serving. They would go on good runs where they kept some momentum, but ultimately the Titans’ experience proved to be a difference maker. The visitors secured 25-14, 25-13 and 25-16 sets to win, 3-0.
The Vols’ most experienced varsity players were two eighth graders who played a couple of years of club ball each, but otherwise the team is largely new to the sport.
“We’ve only practiced five weeks since I took this job,” Woolbright said. “Roughly two or three times, only one week we practiced every day, and several girls are involved in other sports so they’ve gone to other things and still come to practice. For five weeks and being as competitive as we are, I think that’s pretty impressive and I’m proud of them. They’ve embraced it and tried to learn the game. They’re very competitive and they want to get better.”
The Vols’ season continues next week with a slate of road games at Simpson, Columbus Christian and Itawamba.
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