Lady Raiders hone skills at annual Gatorade event

In front of a sizable crowd at the Cabela's Athletic Facility on Friday night, the Sidney High volleyball team took to the court for the first time this season at the annual Gatorade Scrimmage.

Decked out in tie-die shirts and big smiles, Sidney's freshmen, junior varsity and varsity squads did battle against themselves in what was most of all a light-hearted and informal practice 13 days before their season opener. The Raiders will open at home on Sept. 3 in a triangular against North Platte and Ogallala.

"We have eight practices left until the season opener," said Raiders' head coach Sarah Wilson. "This week we've just been focussed mostly on reviewing our offense, defense and organizational structure and making sure that everyone knows their roles.

"Starting Monday, we'll start preparing for North Platte and Ogallala. That's when we really start zoning in our opponents and being offensively aggressive and what kind of attacks will work. We need to work on our passing too. There's work to be done there," Wilson added.

As the Sidney varsity prepares for its opener, it does so without seven seniors who graduated last spring. On the plus side, several starters return. The Raiders boast just three seniors on its roster, including Emily Mahr, Jasmine Jallen and Sesilia Campos. Mahr is entering her third season as the starting setter.

Also back for Sidney are juniors Maddi Porter and Annalise Lecher, both of whom have been in the starting lineup since they were freshmen. Lecher will take on the duties of middle hitter while Porter will be an outside hitter.

Other returning juniors are Kelsey Knight, Abbey Mills and Abbie Fraas. Among the new faces on the varsity roster include junior Alex Wamsley, sophomore Natalie Radcliffe and freshmen Payton Jung and Katelyn Sylvester.

"Everyone felt really good about the scrimmage afterwards," said Porter. "We were all having fun and played well together. We did just what we wanted to do. What I see most of all with this team is the chemistry we have. We all get along really well and that's going to help us play better as a team."

While the Raiders are a little younger on paper this season than they were in 2014, they have a strong nucleus of experience. Despite struggling through a 10-win season, Sidney still has three starters (Lecher, Mahr and Porter) from its 2013 district championship team.

"What I like about this team is that we're going to have a lot of depth," Wilson said. "We're not just deeper, we have a lot of players that are passionate about volleyball. They're eager to work and they want to improve."

Added Porter, "Tonight we wanted to show everyone how hard we're going to work to be good this year. Hopefully, we showed them that they'll have good reason to come out and watch us play."