Lady Trojans open with lot of new faces

Taking to the volleyball court for the first time since last year’s unfortunate conclusion to the season, Troy High School begins this campaign anew in many ways.

For starters, the Lady Trojans bring back a small group of players who have any varsity volleyball experience. Five seniors were lost to graduation and two others are not on the squad this season for other reasons.

“We’re going to be a young team, very energetic and out there talking a lot, communicating,” Lady Trojans volleyball coach Sandra Jansma said. “We have some powerful hitters; we just have a very young setter.”

Alicia Anderson represents the lone full-time returning starter. An outside hitter, Anderson is also the team’s only senior that has any experience and is counted on as a veteran, team leader.

Kristin Parks, a 5-foot-9 middle blocker, was a part-time starter a year ago. And teammate Ashley Paasch, outside hitter, has limited time on the varsity squad.

“Besides that, we basically have a brand new team,” Jansma said. “We’re trying to mesh new personalities together and trying to under our roles. We have a group of girls who really work well together in practice Š they work hard.”

Alyssa Olds has practiced as the top setter in preseason drills. Jansma said, “I know she’ll pull through for us and have our passes there.”

Jansma, entering her fourth season as head coach, has high hopes for senior Molly Harpole, who is the tallest player on the team at 5-10. She’s slated to see time at middle blocker.

Troy finished last season with a record around .500 but ran into trouble in the postseason.

“We ended up losing a couple of girls a couple of days before districts,” Jansma said. “It was an interesting end to the season. This year, we’re very positive in our outlook and look forward to playing together as a team.”

In all, Jansma has 26 girls in the volleyball program. The season opens Friday at home against Noxon. Then the Trojans hit the road on Saturday for a tournament at Mission.

Troy will play a couple of key home games in the opening weeks – Sept. 13 against Plains and Sept. 18 against Eureka. Three of the last four matches of the season will come on the road.

“We’re just going to be ready for the next game every week and not really pay attention to the end of the season,” she said. “We’re going to play in the now and hopefully we’ll be a force to reckon with.”

This season’s district tournament is scheduled for Nov. 7-8 at Plains with divisionals to follow Nov. 13-15 at Valley Christian and state set for Nov. 20-22 at Bozeman.