Balanced roster could lead to great success for No. 23 Walters State

January 28, 2021

MORRISTOWN, TN – In a normal year, the Walters State volleyball team would already be preparing for the 2021 fall season, recovering from their 2020 season.

However, this is no normal year.

With COVID-19 creating issues in the fall, the NJCAA volleyball season was pushed from the fall of 2020 to the start of 2021. Now, after a year-long offseason, the Lady Senators will finally return to the court on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at Roane State.

"It's been really weird," Walters State coach Megan Blaylock said. "We're used to a three-week preseason, but this has been like a three-month preseason. It has been good though. We have gotten in some good practice time and some really good individual work that we don't necessarily get to do."

The Lady Senators enter the year ranked No. 23 in the NJCAA preseason poll after a 20-9 season in 2019.

Walters State will have a smaller schedule than normal with just 18 matches, 12 of them being conference matches.

The season starts at Roane State before the first home match on Feb. 4 against Chattanooga State. The Lady Senators will play eight matches in the month of February, six in the conference and two non-conference against the Bob Jones JV team.

The regular season concludes in March with 10 matches, including a trip to Spartanburg, S.C. for the SMC Spring Fling. There, Walters State will play USC Lancaster, Spartanburg Methodist, Wallace State and St. John's River State.

The Lady Senators final match is March 18 against Cleveland State.

"We have to stay within four hours of Morristown so making the schedule was extremely tough," Blaylock said. "We're not used to playing our conference teams four times. It's pretty crazy. Our schedule will be very different, but I am ok with it."

It will be a different look on the court for Walters State too. The Lady Senators brought in a freshmen class of 10 to go along with eight sophomores.

While Blaylock sees all of the freshmen on the same level for the most part, she did name a few that she expects to provide an impact early on.

"I think we will be middle heavy which is not very common," Blaylock said. "Devyn Davis is a great middle blocker. Raenah Barton is really versatile and can swing any position on the front row. I think she'll see some good playing time."

With a large freshmen class, Blaylock said that the longer offseason has really benefitted them and eased them into volleyball on the college level.

"It's been a gamechanger," Blaylock said. "To get them comfortable on the floor and on the same page as our returners is huge. It gives them the chance to see what we want them to do and actually get them to practice it."

As for the returners, Walters State lost just two girls from last years team. The eight returning sophomores all played in at least 28 of the 29 matches last season.

With a smaller roster last year, the sophomores on the 2021 squad each got significant playing time, something that will be beneficial this season.

"All of our returners got pretty significant playing time last year," Blaylock said. "I don't really see that changing. We will definitely be focused on our big hitters in the middle and our returning setters are very good. I am very confident in them."

Walters State's match against Roane State is set for 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 2. For complete coverage, make sure to follow Walters State athletics on all social media platforms.

Rob Harvey

Walters State Community College

Sports Information Director

Cell: (423) 779-8880

Email: sportsinfo@ws.edu

Website: www.ws.edu/athletics