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Volleyball: Lady Cougars have shoes to fill up front
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
With a rather inexperienced frontcourt, the non-district portion of the season has been a feeling out process for The Colony's volleyball team as the Lady Cougars built chemistry and continuity before opening District 9-4A competition last Friday at Frisco Wakeland (a loss).
Previously, the Lady Cougars took part in the Frisco ISD Invitational, where they squared off against solid competition and went 2-2.
The Colony was coming off a 4-3 performance Aug. 23-25 at a tournament it co-hosted with Lewisville. The Lady Cougars secured victories over North Forney (25-18, 25-21), Frisco Lone Star (25-19, 25-22), Forney (18-25, 25-13, 26-24) and Mesquite Horn (25-22, 25-22), while losing to Denton Guyer (25-17, 25-10), Lewisville (25-13, 25-16, 22-25, 25-15) and Wylie (25-17, 25-21, 25-8).
Harrod added a majority of the difficulties have been as a result of youth.
"We had some issues hitting the ball into the night and with some of the girls transitioning from club to the high school level and speed of the game," she said. "And it seems to me like we are having difficulty hanging on to and dwelling on the errors we make. We need to get over mistakes and move on to the next point.
"We're also pretty young on the right side and in the middle after losing some key players. That's where we are really trying to rebuild."
The Colony graduated its two leading attackers from last season in Attacker of the Year Stacey Koch and Blocker of the Year Amanda Colgrove.
An area of strength where experience does return, however, is on the outside with Jennifer Valenciano.
"She's our leader and has been playing very well this year," Harrod said.
Last season, Valenciano was named the district's Newcomer of the Year and is a player who is rarely taken off the court. In 2011, she paced the team with 17 aces to go with 67 kills, 201 digs and 192 returns.
Also returning with varsity experience are libero Tori Hawk (first team), setter Lauren Ranney (first team), outside hitter Mady Gill (second team), middle blocker Natalie Collier and defensive specialist Erika Chavez (honorable mention).
"We're young up front, but have experience in other areas," Harrod said. "And we have two girls who have experience from playing on the state team (in 2010). That has really helped us out."
Hawk, who also starts for the softball team, posted 225 digs, scored 158 points and served at a 89-percent rate last season.
"We're so excited to have her back," Harrod said. "She's such a great athlete and helps us on both the offensive and defensive end."
Ranney, meanwhile, had 157 digs and points scored in 2011.
"She is our best setter," Harrod said, "but I've really been impressed with the way she is stepping up as a leader of the team."
Gill and Collier will see increased roles on the attack following the loss of Koch and Colgrove, while Chavez anchors the back row.
"Collier is showing well in the middle and making us feel a little better about replacing Stacy," Harrod said. "And Erika is doing a great job as our DS. I really think we have some strong players on defense."
Another point of emphasis for The Colony is finding ways to mix up the attack.
"With the players we have this year opposed to the past couple of years, we're not able to mix up the offense as much. It's going to be a little more plain. We're also working on how to transition from offense to defense and how to work in different aspects of our offense to get more hitters involved."
Newcomers to the varsity include Kennedy Keiser.
"She's going to play a pivotal role for us and will help out the Jennifer and Madison on offense," Harrod said. "We need her, and a few others, to step up because we don't have the depth on offense that we do on defense. It's kind of a shorter rotation than we are used to having right now."
To make the playoffs, the Lady Cougars will have to place in the top four out of District 9-4A, which includes Frisco, Frisco Centennial, Frisco Heritage, Frisco Liberty, Frisco Wakeland, Little Elm and Prosper.
"It's going to be a battle every night," Harrod said. "I think looking at it early on, Centennial and Liberty would be the favorites. But you can't forget about Frisco and some of the other teams. Whoever makes it has a chance to make a deep playoff run. Our goal is always to make the playoffs and see what happens, but it starts with improving each day."
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