The Caldwell County volleyball team wants to see just how good it can get over the next two months.
“The thing that excites me the most is, I know come October the team is going to be a whole lot better than where we are right now because of our youth,” said Lady Tiger head coach Daniel Cortner. “We are going to grow a lot between now and then.”
Another reason to look ahead — Caldwell County will host the 2nd Region tournament in October for the first time since 2011.
“We’re excited to get to host,” said Cortner. “We see it as an honor and a chance to showcase our venue and hospitality.”
A late-season swoon against a stiff schedule left Caldwell with a 13-19 record last year.
The Lady Tigers went 0-6 last month at the Bluegrass State Games in Lexington, but Cortner thinks his team will learn from the experience.
“At Bluegrass Games we got beat on things that we haven’t worked on yet,” he noted. “And we got beat by some pretty seasoned teams.”
Caldwell knows its game plan heading into the season.
“Our goal is to stay out of rallies,” said Cortner. “We want to let our middle hitters get early kills and stay out of long rallies.”
Juniors Brylee Butts and Benashka Thomas will be the players in the middle for the Lady Tigers.
Butts had 99 kills last season and led the team with 34 blocks.
Thomas recorded 92 kills and added 12 blocks.
Also back is senior outside hitter Ellie Ramey, who led the Lady Tigers with 144 kills a year ago.
Setting up Caldwell’s big hitters will be sophomore Kylee White and freshman Medeline Thomas.
“We are going to run a two-setter offense and we haven’t done that since 2019,” said Cortner. “So that splits practice reps between those two kids.”
Caldwell’s defense will be anchored by senior T.J. Goodwin along with juniors Rylee Thompson and Anna Giltz.
Thompson had 40 kills last season and was second on the team in digs with 192.
“We’ve also got a lot of youth that is capable of getting on the floor at any given time,” Cortner noted.
“We’ve got 11 seventh and eighth graders that have never played before that I’m excited about. They’re all athletes.”
Cortner said the Lady Tiger offense will be started by the defense.
“We’ve got to receive serve far better than we have been,” said Cortner. “I think we got our eyes opened at the Bluegrass Games in that regard.
“And, it might be cliche, but we’ve got to start winning the energy battle.”
The Lady Maroons have captured the last two district championships after Caldwell had taken the title for 14 straight years prior to that.
“Madisonville graduated five off of last year’s regional championship team,” said Cortner.
“They’ve got a new coach, and I think once they get adapted to her style they’ll still be really good.
“And I’m concerned with Hopkins County Central, too. They took us to five sets last year.”
The Lady Tigers go to Community Christian Academy in Paducah for a preseason scrimmage on Thursday.
On Saturday, Caldwell visits Graves County for scrimmages against the host school and Paducah Tilghman.
The Lady Tigers will begin regular-season play on Thursday, Aug. 17, when they host Union County.
