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RANDOLPH – Randolph volleyball has always been reliable for being a competitive team that will make things interesting for anyone who plays them.
After a 10-18 season saw the curtain call for middle Bailey Beal and setter Erin Engel, the Lady Cardinals expect to compete again with a team with plenty of experience and young talent on board.
“We seemed to struggle at being consistent each night,” Randolph head coach Lyndsee English said of her first year in charge last fall. “The game of volleyball is a very team oriented sport and if all six players aren’t on the same page on the same night, it makes it hard to find success. When the girls played at their best together as a team, they won. They were able to push some teams to four or five sets but were just unable to put enough together to win those harder games.”
English has six seniors back and one junior who should lead the charge. Seniors Ella Scott (libero) and Jacey Bartels (setter/OH) are the captains with big personalities to follow while Eva Bermel returns after injury derailed her 2022 campaign.
Jocilyn Greiner is also back after a year off. “Our biggest goal over the summer was to figure out our setter positions after graduating Erin - a four-year starter,” English said. “We have a few sophomores who are stepping up and will be going after varsity playing time along with a possible freshman. It’s very nice as a coach to see these young girls stepping up and competing at practice which in turn pushes these older girls to play harder.
“One of our main focuses will be to get our setters and hitters comfortable together and find that connection.”
The Lady Cardinals are in D2 which means most of the teams they face off against will be from bigger schools.
“Only four schools on our schedule this year are also D2,” English said. “The majority of our games are against D1, C2, and even C1 schools. We are going to have to play together as a team and play hard. Our main goal has to be to improve from one game to the next and mainly focus on us and what our abilities are.
“We are not the tallest team this year with our tallest players being 5-8, so we will focus a lot on our defense and playing smart.”
Bartels is more optimistic than a kid going to Disney World expecting to see a cartoon character. She is interested to see how the team’s 6-2 offense runs with three setters to choose from.
“They created a rotation to where I can still hit outside when I’m in the front row,” Bartels said adding she will set when the chance arrives. “I’m technically an outside, so it’s really neat. We’re really scrappy and I’m not gonna lie, I think we’re pretty steady (hitting).
Everyone worked hard this summer and all the freshmen are really, really nice at hitting. They follow instruction, the verticals have increased like crazy because we did jumping in the morning. If they get stronger arms, our blocking is gonna be right on.”
Bartels is heartfelt in her praise for the younger girls and the team’s evolving chemistry.
“We all see each other in school and we’re all friends,” she said. “We don’t have that go-to person every single time. It’s varied because of how great everybody is. One thing that we all have a problem with is hitting the floor, but, I mean, that’ll just take time.
“(On offense) we’ve practiced everything, and it’s working really well. Taylor Mavis got put as a right side and she smashed it (Saturday). It was crazy. So now we have powerful right side that we didn’t have last year.”
The official start of the season begins Thursday in Homer with a tri between the Lady Cardinals, Cedar Catholic and the host.
