EudoraNews.com

The Eudora High volleyball team has its work cut out for it, and this week at summer camp it had the opportunity to get a head start.

"We will be very short and very young," said coach Brian Kraus. "We're just going to be filling a lot of spots and it's a matter of bringing the new girls up to speed."

The team graduated five senior-starters this spring, leaving only a handful of players with varsity experience and a cast of young and inexperienced players to step up to the challenge in a competitive league.

"There's just a lot of good teams," Kraus said. "We're going to make the effort play good, sound defense."

Shena Niedens, a senior who has played varsity since her sophomore year, said she thought solid passing would also play an important role in the team's success.

"Passing will be a big key because we are going to be so short," Niedens said. "If you have a scrappy team you can usually fare pretty well."

To do that, the girls returned to the fundamentals this week, doing drill after drill to improve their skills.

"We want to make sure we catch any problems in technique early," Kraus said. "If they don't have a handle on the basics, it will be hard to go on to some of the harder things."

Because of the new make-up of the team, Kraus said he would need to change some things with the offense to adjust to a shorter squad.

"It's going to depend on how the setters develop in the off season," Kraus said. "Right now we are working on individual skills. We'll put the plays in later when we know a little bit more about the team."

Niedens said there were a lot of juniors returning this year vying for open varsity spots.

"There will be a lot of competition for spots," Niedens said. "But it's really hard to tell how we'll do since a lot of people haven't been at camp."

There are two separate camps, one for middle school from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and one for high school athletes from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Both will wrap up tonight with intra-team scrimmages that should shed some light on the Cardinals' future.

For now, Kraus said it was too early to tell how the team would fare in the regular season, which kicks off on August 14 with the team's first practice.