By: Hannah Smith ’22
The Lady Saints volleyball team is looking to complete a conference championship three-peat going into the 2022-2023 season. With only three seniors graduating last year, they return the majority of their players including all-conference selection, conference player of the year, and conference tournament MVP senior Hailey Davenport. One focus going into the season has been reworking positions after losing their starting setter; junior Jamie Galinis and sophomore transfer Laci Bitterman look to fill this role.
After the 2021-2022 season, many Lady Saints played for various club travel teams to prepare for the school season and work on their skill level. This, along with several talented newcomers, has the Saints looking more talented than ever before. The Saints have two new teams to the conference but they are both familiar opponents: The Epiphany School of Global Studies out of New Bern and Parrott Academy out of Kinston, both of which beat the Saints last year.
The Saints opened their season in New Bern on August 11 & 12 in a tournament hosted by Epiphany. They went 3-1 against Epiphany, The Oakwood School, Wayne Christian, and Pungo Christian – with the loss coming against 2022 1A State Champion Pungo Christian. The strategy for the Saints for the past two years was to force the other team to make errors. The Saints have a history of being a strong defensive team – they averaged 11.6 digs per set last season. Leading the way on defense was Davenport who had more than 200 digs last season.
Head Coach Trayce Wilson-Ruffin believes his team now has the attacking options they were missing last year. He would like to see the speed of the offense improve now that the front row includes Galinis, Davenport, senior Macy Johnson, junior Adrianna Hasselbach, sophomore newcomer Ramsey Cureton, and freshman Kelcey Bonner. With an upperclassman-led team, Trayce sees the potential for a very successful season and hopes to complete the conference championship three-peat by “just keep winning.” The Lady Saints open the regular season at home this Thursday against Grace Christian of Sanford at 5:45 p.m.
