Low numbers weren’t going to be enough stop the St. Regis Lady Tigers volleyball squad. Eight girls showed up to practice willing to work hard and put in the time and effort. After running through warm-up drills, the girls got busy hitting, passing and serving.

Coach Cindy Feasel said that the team’s goals for the year included advancing to district play and when they reached districts to be playing their best game of the season.

“We have some height this year,” Feasel noted at the opening of the season. “We’re a bit raw in our skills, but will work on them. Our overall goal is to move toward the district tournament. Our other biggest goal is to be working on hitting and become stronger offensively. This team has always been strong offensively.”

With the extra height at the net, Feasel hoped that would translate into some strong hitters who would prove to be a force at the net. She said that she also had some greenhorns on the team, some scrappy young players, veteran players and some hard hitters.

“It’s a good group,” Feasel said. “They all really seem to enjoy each other.”

Feasel was impressed in the first few practices by the girls’ communication, aggressive defense and serving.

The girls opened with a tournament against Drummond and the match helped right off the bat to show them where some improvements needed to be made. At the tournament, they lost to Lincoln, a team they played the following Thursday.

But they couldn’t pull it off and the Lady Tigers lost to Lincoln again. However, a few positive things kept Feasel thinking positive.

“That was a great game,” Coach Cindy Feasel said of the comeback. “Lisa Stevens did a very nice job and right there, it shows you we can play. Arianna Jones, a freshman, came out and had ten serves in a row. She handled that type of pressure and still kept a consistency. By the end of the season, I think we’ll be a force to reckon