August 22 can’t get here soon enough for the Pleasant Home Lady Eagles varsity volleyball team.

The Lady Eagles will begin its fourth season as a volleyball team on that Monday, and will face area foe Kinston.

Pleasant Home returns nine players from last year’s team, two of which are injured, head volleyball coach Jerry Davis said.

“We’ve got seven girls that had played quite a bit of volleyball last year,” Davis said.

Davis said losing former senior Kaitlin Brookshire as the setter for the team was a big loss. However, he thinks Caitlin Jernigan will fill her shoes.

“She’s a good athlete,” he said. “It’s just a matter of picking it up.”

The Lady Eagles will compete in Class 1A, Area 2 with Kinston and Florala this season. Most of Pleasant Home’s schedule is against teams in Class 2A, 3A and 4A.

“We play a good schedule,” Davis said. “I think we’re going to be able to score some points by hitting it a little more. We’ve got three or four girls that are hitting the ball a little better than they’ve hit it.

“Defensively, that’s kind of the way we survived last year,” he said. “We serve the ball pretty well.”

The Lady Eagles have two seniors and three juniors on the team this season. The seniors are Chelsea Walker and Kendra Bryan.

Some other notable players on the team include Emily Byrd, Taylor Godwin, Raven Woods, Abigail Kelley, Kim Reed and Courtney Slaughter, Davis said.

“Like every body else, we’re ready to get started,” he said.