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Valley’s volleyball team is preparing to open its season this Saturday in the Kawana Tucker Memorial Tournament in Lanett. 

The Rams are going into their fourth season under Head Coach Madyson Messer. The team will be relatively young with just three seniors on the team. 

“My expectations are just to progress and get better as a program,” Messer said. “We’ve been trying to build the program up over the past few years. Now that girls are really into volleyball and enjoying it around here, we’re starting to get better.” 

Nevaeh Crane and Madison Turnham are the two captains for Valley. Crane and Turnham are two of the most experienced players on the team. 

“They’re our two captains this year, so I expect a lot out of them, but we have a lot of young talent on our varsity team this year,” Messer said. “They show leadership in everything. If anything’s going wrong at practice, they fix it before I ever have to.” 

Most of the upperclassmen on the team have been with Messer since she started three seasons ago. 

In their fourth year under her, Messer expects to see improvements on and off the court. 

“Obviously, I expect them to progress every year and get better at everything that they do, but I really expect them to be leaders out on the court,” Messer said. “That’s really important for what we’re trying to do here is for the leaders to be able to get the team together, do what we’re supposed to do and keep everybody on track.” 

Valley will open its season in a tournament, which could be somewhat daunting for some of the younger players. 

Messer expects the younger players to do their part this weekend and step up when they are needed. 

“With a lot of our girls from last year not returning, things are going to be a little different,” Messer said. “Our rotations look a little different. I’m just expecting a lot of our young girls to step up and do their thing this weekend.” 

Last season, Valley was eliminated from the area tournament by Eufaula in three games. In the area championship, Beauregard would beat Eufaula in three games. 

“I’m really looking forward to playing teams in our area,” Messer said. “Those are the ones that mean the most. They put up very stiff competition. We’re really gonna see what our girls are made of when we play them.” 

Messer is most excited for their matchup against Beauregard. 

“They won our area last year, and they’re very good,” Messer said. “We’re hoping to at least give them some competition and go forward from there.” 

The Rams will play in the second game of the tournament on Saturday against Booker T. Washington at 10:30 a.m.