The Columbia Wildcats went through a rebuilding season last year under first-year head coach Ryan Loftin, going 5-15, and are still trying to reestablish a winning culture. They hosted the Mountain Dew Classic Saturday to open the season but were swept by both Seminary and West Marion.
Columbia (0-2) was beat by Seminary 25-6 and 25-8 in its first match but rebounded well and played the Trojans tough in their second match despite being swept by their rival.
Loftin said his primary takeaway was they need to get better against good serving teams because both Seminary and West Marion serve it really well.
“They put some serving points on us — Seminary did for sure. Once you started losing that serving (battle), it’s hard to really get anything going and start packing the points together,” he explained. “We tried to make some adjustments in game and did a little bit better in the second set against Seminary, but they’re returning 13 seniors and are going to be really, really good.”
Columbia also made some adjustments with their serve receive against West Marion and played a lot better in that regard against the Trojans, according to Loftin.
The Wildcats were without about a third of their players because of quarantine and had to play some girls who wouldn’t play varsity regularly, but Loftin said he was really proud of the way they handled it. He added he was also proud of Columbia’s serving and that the Wildcats are really going to rely on seniors Patrice Oatis, Skye Abram, Jalaysia Everett and Shania Martin on the line serving.
“I thought another senior, Natalie Stringer, did a good job. She’s our libero and came in and got some touches when we needed it,” Loftin said.
The second-year coach added that the hope is once everyone comes back and gets back into the flow of playing volleyball again that the Wildcats will be able to clean things up a bit.
The Wildcats played at North Forrest Tuesday, but results were unavailable at press time. They will play at West Marion Thursday and host Magee Monday.
