A more experienced group of Straughn Lady Tigers will return to the volleyball court this season, coach Marc Tracy said.

“I think we had a really young team last year,” Tracy said. “We had a lot of sophomores last year. Obviously, they’re juniors this year.

“I expect us to be better,” he said. “That comes with age more than anything.”

The Lady Tigers have six seniors on their roster in Crystal Bonds, Ean Frye, Courtney Fussell, Mary Beth Correro, Mariah Bonham and Catherine Tran.

This season, the Lady Tigers move back down to Class 3A, and will be in Area 2 against Opp and Excel.

Tracy said the re-classification will help a little.

“A lot of it is just having to travel,” he said. “A three-team area gives you a better opportunity to do well in the area.”

Correro said she believes this group of girls can beat their area opponents this season.

“I’m very confident (in the team),” Correro said. “I’m not too, too confident to where I’m getting big-headed. I think we have a really good chance to go far this year because our girls are so athletic and work so hard toward where they want to go.”

Setters will be Frye and Emily Hammett, who is a junior, Tracy said. He said both will rotate during the season.

SHS’s libero is Angel Carter, who is also a junior. Hammett and Carter comprise two of the Lady Tigers’ four juniors on the team.

From the junior varsity team, Tracy said he brought up Paige Taylor and Jacie Williamson for much-needed height and depth.

“I felt like they were ready to play at this level,” he said. “This is probably the tallest team we’ve had for Straughn in volleyball. They both are very good volleyball players.”

Tracy said he thinks the team averages a height of 5-foot-8.

Correro said the main difference between the team from last year compared to this year’s is that the girls know what they can do to improve and get better.

“This year, we kind of know what we are up against,” she said. “We’ll be able to work harder and we will not get too confident in ourselves and keep trying, and try our best and never giving up.”

And Tracy said besides know each other’s faults, the girls seem to be having a lot of fun together.

On team goals, Tracy and Correro said just about the same thing.

“We want to go as far as we possibly can,” Correro said. “We want to go ahead and beat Opp because we want to be able to host the area tournaments.”

Added Tracy: “We want to make Super Regionals. It would be a thrill to make state,” he said. “I think if we put in the work we need to put in the next few weeks and throughout the seaon, those are very obtainable goals for us.”

Correro is the daughter of Jennifer and Frank Correro. She has an older brother, Vince, who lives in Tennessee; three little brothers and sisters, Emily who is a sophomore at SHS; and Robin and Drew, who are twins going into the first grade this year.