The start of Crothersville’s volleyball team has been delayed due to injuries.

An announcement from the school said, “Due to injuries the Lady Tigers will not be playing in the Scottsburg Invitational.”

Kristy Wright is anxious to see how her Crothersville volleyball team performs under pressure.

The Tigers will open their season Thursday at Madison Christian Academy. “What we’re focusing on right now is the teamwork, the communication, and really working together,” she said as early-season goals.

There aren’t any seniors on the 15-player roster. Juniors, all returning lettermen, are Hayden Pilgrim, Zoey Prince and Grace Smith.

Wright said Pilgrim and junior Kendra Kelshaw will be middle hitters, and sophomore Brooklyn Bottorff and Prince will be outside hitters.

Other sophomores are Maddie Smith, Jazlin Gibson, Meredith Henry and Stormey Shouse. Kelshaw and Shouse did not play last year.

“We have a very strong front line,” Wright said. “With those returning from last year and having varsity experience, that is a good thing. We have a few that have (their net play) down pat, but we still have some that we focus on certain skills during practice, either footwork or the swing.

“We are going to count on quite a few freshmen to come up and play varsity as well. That will be interesting from them, just too kind of get those jitters out. Hopefully we can work on that Saturday, and once the conference games start they’ll be ready to play.”

Maddie Smith will be the libero. Freshman Rayleigh Lewis will play some in the back row for the varsity.

Wright said, “Most of our players play all-around, but we have some that specialize. It’s kind of an even split between specializing in front row and specializing in back row.”

She has had the girls working a lot on their serving.

“We’ve really been working on accuracy on our serves,” Wright said. “We don’t want to give away points, so we’ve really been focusing on that, which may be a strength for us. The teamwork and communication is going to be a strength.

“We’re always working on our defense.”

She wants the players to keep a positive attitude.

“We don’t want anybody to get down, but try to encourage everyone to keep playing.”

Wright, a CHS graduate who previously coached the Tigers during the 2004 season, said she felt like the girls learned a lot playing in the Hauser summer league, and that they have had a good preseason.

“We saw a lot of improvement for the summer, and we only have maybe three players that didn’t play in the summer, so they’ve been playing together since June, basically. That is a positive.

“Obviously, we want to have a winning season and we want to be successful in the sectional, and be proud of how we play.”

The Tigers’ home opener will be Friday, Aug. 23, against Borden for a Southern Athletic Conference match.