Chemistry Key To Lady Cavs Volleyball Start

With a veteran team back, the Cookeville Lady Cavs Volleyball team hopes to produce a championship run.

The Lady Cavs finished 19-7 a year ago. With her varsity rotation consisting of the same players as last year, head coach Staci Weigand said that her team has an edge over programs that are rebuilding.

“I think it gives us a very strong team chemistry advantage,” Weigand said. “Usually when you are in a rebuilding year, you are working on chemistry, who’s connecting and when are they connecting. We figured that out last season. So, this year we have that and now we’re building on that in a very strategic way.”

In 2024, the Lady Cavs will feature a new defensive scheme that worked in their season opener shutting out Smyrna. While Weigand remained vague on specifics, she said the win over the Bulldogs proved the change is working.

“We worked all of July on this, the girls have never done defense in this way,” Weigand said. “So, we changed that and we’ve been working on that for several weeks now and doing really well.”

In their senior seasons, co-captains, libero Anica Cobb and middle hitter Kallie Clark have taken on a bigger role on this year’s team. Weigand said their contributions to the team are invaluable.

“These two co-captains were voted on by their peers,” Weigand said. “So, these two hold a very important role for me and the other coaches in the program, but also for the other players in the program.”

Weigand’s roster consists of 32 girls and she said Cobb and Clark are role models for the underclassmen both with their performance on the court and their characters off the court. This is the first time in Weigand’s coaching career that she has not lost any players in the off season.