By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Benton volleyball team had its best season of the modern era last fall, going 24-10-1 and winning a district championship over Maryville.
The Cardinals are hopeful for more this year, as they only lost one senior from last year's squad in libero Berlin Smith.
Third-year head coach Lauryn Doolan says the combination of returning starters and newcomers has made for a lot of excitement at practice.
"We have a great group of returning players, but we also have a ton of new faces that have made it a lot more competitive as well," Doolan said. "All of that is exciting to see. It's exciting to see the competition."
Avery Morlock, Eliana Arumbula, Hollie and Cammie Peters, Emma Loehnig and Andrea Simmons are among the key starters and contributors back for the Cardinals this season.
These Cardinals believe there's a newfound confidence on a team that just won its first district title since 2017.
"I think it's given us confidence this year," Simmons said. "That we can do it and we can do it again if we just keep working hard and doing the little things right."
"If we've done it once, we should have the expectation and bar set high enough to get to that district championship," Peters added.
Indeed, the Cardinals are reloaded and have their eyes on bigger achievements this fall. Peters, a senior, says up and coming players like Simmons, a junior, have her excited to get back into the season.
"I'm very excited," Peters said. "Especially since we have Andrea coming up. She's so good. And this summer has been too long. I'm ready to get back into it."
Doolan says the key to another successful season is improving and building off of last year - not being satisfied with how last season ended, which was a loss in the state sectional round to Odessa.
"We have to play like we did last year and get better and grow new players to add in to help us out a little bit," Doolan said. "So, we are constantly reminding the girls that we can always get better. If you're happy with where you're at right now, that's not going to be good enough for a program. It's about growing every single day."
Benton will open the 2023 season at the Tarkio tournament on August 26th.
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