The Hillsboro High School Lady Indians volleyball team started their season on Saturday August 19 when they hosted the annual Highland County Spike and Dig tournament. The girls are scheduled to wrap up their regular season on October 5 with a home matchup against cross county and Frontier Athletic Conference rivals the McClain Lady Tigers.
The Lady Indians return five varsity players from last season’s squad. There are three seniors, three juniors, three sophomores, and a freshman on the varsity squad. The team is coached by Nichole Dickey.
“I definitely expect the three seniors to step up and lead the team. It is going to be an interesting year for this team. Girls are going to challenge one another for spots.”, said Dickey. “By the girls being challenged on a daily basis that will help them be more competitive in actual matches.”
Coach Dickey is trying to get the girls to believe in themselves more this season. She said, “They tend to beat themselves up over mistakes. We are trying to get them to understand that they have to move onto the next play, everyone else has forgotten about it and they should too.”
Despite the loss of two seniors from last years squad coach Dickey thinks the team can still be good. “The group of girls that are here now will definitely be able to play together. They may not be able to make up for the loss in production right away. But, within a few weeks they will be doing just fine.”, said Dickey.
“The goal of the season is to have a winning season. The league has changed a little bit. We will miss playing Wilmington and Clinton-Massie. Those were some competitive games that we enjoyed and we will miss that. We look forward to seeing what Jackson has to offer this year.”, Dickey said.
Dickey said, “The strength of this team is their belief in each other. I have been around all of these girls since seventh grade. I know when to push and when not to. I know how they react to different kinds of coaching. That is going to help us a lot this season.”
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
