By Robert Hudson

The Selma Times-Journal

Volleyball season is almost here, and the Judson College Eagles are hoping to take the next step this year.

Coming off a 9-7 season, head coach Anna Wood said the team’s main goal is to make it to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association national tournament.

“Of course, our ultimate goal is to participate in the national tournament in our league,” Wood said. “They take the top 12 out of our conference to play in the tournament and last year we finished 13th, so we just missed out.”

Wood said the girls also have a personal goal to just go out, work hard and have fun.

Wood said she also expects her team to be better this year.

“One big thing is that we only graduated two players, so I’ve got almost my entire team coming back,” Wood said. “I think we’re going to be better this year than we were last year.”

Wood said she’s also worked hard on the recruiting trail to replace the two graduated seniors.

“I came in a little before the season started last year,” Wood said. “This year I got to do my own recruiting and got to build the team the way I wanted.”

Wood said the Eagles have to improve on the basics and play strong defense if they want to find success on the court.

“Last year we had a problem with some of the serving and a little bit of the basics, but we improved toward the end of the season, I think we’ll be better with that,” Wood said. “We’re a smaller team than some of the teams we play. We’re shorter, so we have to compensate for that with strong defense.”

Wood added that the team has a bunch of community events planned for the upcoming season including something special for Breast Cancer Awareness in October.

“We’re trying to get the community to come together with events and trying to have good turnouts for games,” Wood said. “I’m really looking forward to that.”