Head Coach Malpica says that he is excited about the upcoming volleyball season. The Lady Panthers will look to build upon last season, which saw the team make it to the second round of the playoffs. The girls finished with a 21-17 record in 2015.
“We have two senior leaders, Kerri Williams and Myah Johnson, that come back with lots of experience. We will look for them to lead us back to the playoffs this year,” says Malpica. “We also have two underclassmen that are returning from our playoff run last year.”
Coach Malpica is clearly relying on the two seniors, Kerri and Myah, the most. Kerri will contribute from her outside hitter position, while Myah returns as the team’s setter.
“Kerri is our best all-around player. She is our best offensive and defensive player. She is very quick defensively and very powerful offensively. Myah is the quarterback of our team. We are counting on her to lead the offense and help us to score points,” says Coach Malpica.
“We have two juniors returning with two years experience playing varsity volleyball,” adds Coach Malpica. “Kennedi Barnes and Hannah Luker will help compliment our two returning seniors. Kennedi is our big middle blocker. We expect her to step up this year and lead us defensively. Hannah is one of our outside hitters, and we expect a lot from her this year also. Hannah has a lot of experience from playing club volleyball the last three or four years.”
Coach Malpica was also quick to speak about two new starters that have stepped up during early practices.
“Mercedes Pickens is a junior who is going to play outside hitter for us. She has done well through the first few practices and we look for her to contribute. Kyra Britton is an incoming freshman who we expect to start from day one. She will play middle blocker for us this season.”
With the recent flooding of our community, the Lady Panthers have had to reorganize their schedule. The girls have had to cancel all of their scrimmages that were scheduled, along with cancelling practices. Woodlawn will look to begin practice again on Monday, August 22nd at 2:30 pm. The Lady Panthers will then travel to Brusly on Tuesday for their Jamboree.
