Robbinsville – Despite having a short amount of prep time, the high school volleyball season is here.
It appears someone forgot to tell the Lady Knights that the first official day of practice was a scant 11 days before the campaign launched, as Robbinsville stormed the court for its first action of the year Monday and Tuesday – and appeared more like a team that had logged 20 matches instead of two.
Head coach Kadey Phillips Jones attributed a pair of sweeps at Tuscola and on the Knights' home court against Blue Ridge School to a strong turnout to voluntary summer workouts.
"I honestly didn't know what to think of the season," Jones said. "We're very young; over half of our starters are sophomores, but I know this is a very talented and athletic group. I just didn't know how well we would mesh together.
"The majority of them have shown up all summer. We've went to camp and a couple of scrimmages. They immediately applied everything we've worked on at Tuscola. That was really exciting to see."
Monday's trek to Waynesville turned a lot of heads. Serves were on point for much of the 25-16, 25-13, 25-17 sweep over the Lady Mountaineers (0-1), with Robbinsville delivering 16 aces to the other side of the net.
Tuscola appeared disjointed throughout the match, falling susceptible to service errors and front-row miscues that the Lady Knights (2-0) were more than willing to take advantage of.
"It blew my expectations out of the water. I thought they played phenomenal," Jones said.
Following Tuesday's 5-25, 14-25, 15-25 dismantling of the Lady Bobcats (0-1), Jones was keenly aware of a key component that Robbinsville needs to shore up before entering a tough stretch next week: a trip to Smoky Mountain (1-0) on Monday, Aug. 18 will be followed by Murphy paying a visit for the Smoky Mountain Conference opener on Tuesday, Aug. 19.
"We have to work on being more offensively aggressive," said Jones. "So far, our focus has been on serve and serve-receive, but now we need to switch to the offensive side and bring it all together."
The JV Lady Knights also started their season in the win column, rallying at Tuscola to defeat the Lady Mountaineers 18-25, 25-19, 15-13.