Coach Angie Lucas said she liked the way her Seymour volleyball team performed during Thursday night’s scrimmage against Scottsburg in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.

“We’ve been working very hard on trying to run an offense, a little bit faster offense, so that we’re not predictable, and I felt like Hayley (Harpe) did a really nice job tonight with that when she had the passing,” Lucas said after the Owls outscored the Warriors 25-11, 25-20 in regulation sets.

“We worked in the offseason on passing so I really felt that it was pretty good tonight,” Lucas said. “I felt like we were moving our feet, getting behind the ball and making a good pass to (Harpe).

“We have stressed over-and-over, after we came back from Purdue camp, blocking. Blocking has been a big issue for us, and I felt like we had touches and had some good blocks tonight, and that really helps us because we’re tired of going against one-another in practice. It helps to go against another opponents.”

A total of three seniors; Chloe Criswell, Lily Starr and Sophia Stahl; two juniors, five sophomores and two freshmen make up the varsity roster.

Criswell and Harpe are the only returning varsity starters.

“Those younger kids have a lot of club experience so they bring a lot of experience to the floor. They are young and are going to make freshman and sophomore mistakes,” Lucas said.

“On the flip side, they have had a lot of experience playing in pretty big matches. Olivia (Fish) is one. She played for KIVA and they won the national tournament last year so she’s been in those big matches before so she knows what takes to get through.

“She’s playing a different position for us (outside hitter) than she did for her club (middle), so it takes a while to get used to that. We wanted to move her out there and we think she can help our team better on the outside.”

The Owls were scheduled to open their season today at Jeffersonville, but that match has been postponed until later in the season. Seymour will open its season Tuesday at Columbus North with the freshmen and junior varsity teams playing at 6 p.m., followed by the varsity match.

In practices leading up to the match at North, Lucas said, “We’re going to work more on trying to run our quicker offense. We have not spent much time with the hitters working with Hayley. It’s been Hayley getting a lot of reps in, and the hitters getting a lot of reps in off the tosses, but not together.”

Lucas said she feels like defense can be a strong point of the team.

“I really like the defense,” she said. “I think our defense, at times, looks really good, way better than I’ve seen on a Seymour court in quite a long time. We’ve got that grittiness in the back row. The kids will go after it, and I like that. I love seeing that.”

The team has made great strides in teamwork. “They’re starting to jell, they’re starting to come together, and I’m very excited where we can end up,” Lucas said.

Seymour’s home opener will be next Saturday against Madison, beginning at 10 a.m.