Holtville volleyball relying on experience to improve in 2022

By DALTON MIDDLETON Sports Editor

Holtville’s volleyball season didn’t go as planned last season, mostly due to inexperience and the dreaded COVID-19 virus impacting the team.

But with the team returning all but only one player from last year’s squad, head coach Alison Franklin is hoping to see improvement across the board an in the win column.

Holtville graduated one senior from last year’s squad, and returns key pieces all over the court for them this year. That includes a trio of seniors that have multiple years of starting experience.

“We’re hoping that the old COVID bug stays away this year,” Franklin said. “That got us last year around the second week of the season and we pretty much shut down the varsity the second and third week. That’s when you’re building team chemistry and correcting things for area play, and we never got that. So we’re hoping to stay healthy this year. We have three great seniors who are ready to lead and they’re practicing really hard. They’re ensuring that all of the younger girls are practicing as hard as they are.”

Those three seniors bring the most experience out of the 13 players that make up the Holtville roster. And in that group of seniors are two players who played significant minutes last year as juniors. One of those is outside hitter Reagan Thorn, who has taken on a much larger leadership role this season.

But she doesn’t just lead the team off the court, as she is as good on the front row as she is on the back and one of the team’s top players.

Along with her is setter Maddie Emerson. The Bulldogs this year have two setters that they feel confident in, with Emerson being the one with varsity experience. Avery Goff, who played junior varsity last season, will be the other setter on the team.

“We’re excited about the ability to use two setters,” Franklin said. “I’ve never really had a two-setter system so we’re excited to see what kind of options that gives us. Our passers are pretty much the same girls from last year as well so we’re hoping to improve on

4Aug. 18 – MONTEVALLO

4Aug. 25 – Tri-Match at Thorsby

4Aug. 30 – at Billingsley

4Sept. 1 – at Montevallo

4Sept. 8 – TALLASSEE*

4Sept. 13 – at Tallassee*

4Sept. 15 – ELMORE COUNTY*

4Sept. 22 – at Elmore County*

4Sept. 27 – MARBURY*

4Oct. 3 – BILLINGSLEY

4Oct. 4 – at Marbury*

4Oct. 6 – at Reeltown

4Oct. 12-14 – Area Tournament

4Oct. 19-21 – Super Regionals

4Oct. 25-28 – State Tournament

* denotes region game

HOME GAMES IN ALL CAPS the accuracy on our game.”

Holtville’s team will succeed and fail as the setters do, as Franklin explains to her team just how important that position is to the sport. She’s told the team that the setters are the quarterback of the volleyball court, and they have to know the entire game more than any other position.

With that being the case, she says it’s huge to have someone with as much experience as Emerson coming back and helping with Goff.

“Having varsity experience is the hardest thing when it comes to it,” Franklin said. “The speed of the game is so much different in junior varsity than varsity, so it helps so much that one of them already has experienced that change. I’m hoping that Avery can look to Maddie to try and catch up to that speed.”

Holtville’s season begins at home against Montevallo on Thursday, August 18. The Bulldogs will be tested instantly as Montevallo, a Class 4A team, won 11 games last year and lost in first round of the playoffs.