Volleyball season begins Friday for the Lady Vikes of Warren Central and the season brings a lot of new changes. There are nine experienced seniors looking to lead the team to more wins and have better chemistry.

Elizabeth Boyd, Frida Garcia, Jereka Willis and Aquarius Crook have trained hard in the offseason conditioning for the opener against Ridgeland. Conditioning consisted of a lot of serving drills, working on serve reception, running and blocking.

“We jumped a lot on the bench and over the net,” Willis said.

Because the ladies have played together for multiple seasons they know each other’s game and where they like to be on the court. Boyd said the communication among the girls on the team would be a lot easier this year.

“Everyone is getting along a lot better this year than the previous year,” Crook said.

The seniors are a lot more comfortable in their positions and have adjusted to playing in positions they’ve learned over the years.

Aside from first day jitters, the seniors are excited to begin their final season.

Last year, the Lady Vikes finished two games under .500 and went 8-8 in their district.

“We finished behind Northwest [Rankin], who won the district; Clinton who finished second; and Madison who finished third,” said Matthew Gullett, head volleyball coach at Warren Central. “We had a good season. We had some good quality wins and beat some competitive teams.”

The team spent a lot of time working on fundaments from serving to receiving; Gullett has incorporated everything into practice and is running everything at one time.

Gullett said one of the key components of the game is being able to receive the serve. If a team can’t receive the serve than they can’t get the offense going. The other key component is being able to serve the ball to the opposing team.

“If you can’t get the ball over the net you’re just giving points to the other team,” Gullett said.

He and his coaching staff transitioned from working on skills at a particular position,w to working on the player as a whole.

Coaches worked on taking players out of their comfort zone and force them into learning new skills.

The Lady Vikes also experienced a change in district, which Gullett said is a bit of a relief. Warren Central is now matched up against Clinton, Greenville and Callaway.

“We were in district with Greenville and Clinton last year and we went 2-2 prospectively last year,” Gullett said.

Gullett feels the team has a better chance of making it to the playoffs this season and wants his girls to come in this season determined. He also wants the team to serve and receive better, while overall becoming a better team.