A return to Birmingham is what the Pleasant Home Lady Eagles volleyball team has their sights set on for the 2015 season.

 

“We should be pretty good,” head coach Jerry Davis said. “We have a lot back from last year’s team.”

 

Last year, the Lady Eagles made it all the way to the semi-final game at the state playoffs in Birmingham before falling to eventual state champion, Athens Bible School.

 

“So far, this is just our second day of practice,” Davis said. “We will catch up, though. These girls have been working really hard, and they have what it takes to get back to state.”

 

Davis went on to explain that every year the ultimate goal is a to make it to state, but that some years reasonable goals have to be set because they might not be a state caliber team. This is not that year for the Lady Eagles, Davis said.

 

“I feel like this bunch has some ability,” Davis said. “They can possibly get back to state again and try to win it all.”

 

One thing Davis said they have to get stronger on is passing the ball to their setters.

 

“We have some really strong hitters,” Davis said. “The key for us will be making good passes to our setters. Two of our hitters are legit. River Baldwin and Cassidy Godwin are very strong hitters, and we will probably try to feed them more than others.”

 

Davis also said that the team has good setters in Anna Bulger and Abby Walker.

 

“Our biggest strength this year will be our serving,” Davis said. “We know when we serve that we will give ourselves opportunities to score. We aren’t going to just dink the ball around, we have to be able to hit the ball and put it away. We have good size this year, so we should have strong blocking up front. Hopefully, they will begin to peak towards the end of the year and be able to push for a state championship.”

 

Davis said that out of the eight or nine that played last year that six have returned this year.

 

“I really like this group,” Davis said. “They work very hard to accomplish what they set out to accomplish. I have enough seniors on this team that realize that this is their final chance, and they want to make the most of it.”

 

Davis said that the team isn’t far from contending for the title once again.

 

“They are starting to realize that realistically they aren’t far from it,” Davis said. “They learned a lot from making it to state last year, and they want to build on that.”