Lady Eagles look to extend area winning streak

Published 3:00 am Tuesday, September 26, 2017

The Goshen Lady Eagles volleyball team is off to a perfect start in area play and is beginning to surge up the rankings.

After a successful summer, the Eagles have begun area play with an undefeated record despite a slow start to the season.

“We did get off to a slow start,” said head coach Amy Warrick. “The weather hit and that kept us out of the Auburn Tournament, which I was looking forward to because that would give us some good competition. The regular season games have been good.”

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The Eagles played with different rotations throughout the summer. After their most recent change, the Eagles have seen more success.

“We have some new players in different positions,” Warrick said. “We are using some younger players.”

The Eagles (3-0 in area play) are coming off a successful weekend in Enterprise where they took on some of the state’s best including Providence and Baker.

Even though the Eagles couldn’t come away with wins against those teams, they did come away with on victory during the tournament over Dothan.

“We didn’t play well at all against Providence,” Warrick said. “We came back, changed some stuff up and played against Baker and almost tied them. We were 23-25 against Baker, which I was really proud of because (they) are a good team.”

Later in the tournament, the Eagles took 7A Murphy into the third and final set before ultimately falling.

“I was pleased with how everything is looking with that rotation,” Warrick said. “That was the first time I can say that we were hit at very hard. I thought we did good. I’m not going to say we are where we need to be, but I think if we play the way we are capable of, we can be there.”

The Eagles welcomed back plenty of familiar faces this season including Hannah Calhoun and Kelsey Gibson.

“We have Hannah in the same position as Libero,” Warrick said. “She is steady on the back row. She makes sure we have good passing on the back row. Kelsey is hitting hard. Her and Jada (Hall) are both seniors and they are hitting hard.”

The Eagles had question marks heading into the season, but they were also quietly optimistic. The questions still remain, but Warrick has been happy with what she has seen.

“I wish I could say we are going to be 100 percent dominant, but we’re not,” Warrick said. “We are not there yet. We need to play together and bond a little bit. This tournament (Enterprise) was good for us. We are doing better. I am pleased with them.”

The Eagles have played their first round of area games and have come out of it with an undefeated record. With the second half of the area schedule looming, Warrick is looking for consistency.

“We are going to have to be consistent,” Warrick said. “We have no doubt that they have the talent. We have to be consistent, focused and we have to trust each other.”

The Eagles will return to area play this evening when they host Elba following the junior varsity match at 4 p.m.