The Wyoming Area girls volleyball team may need to take a step back to reset after a rapid ascent in Nick Diaco’s first three years coaching the Lady Warriors.
Every starter and key reserve graduated from a team that improved five matches from the year before to go 14-3 and tie for third in the Wyoming Valley Conference before putting together a run to the 2015 District 2 Class AA championship match from the fifth seed.
“All of my starters on varsity graduated,” Diaco said. “We do have some underclassmen, who sat out on the varsity bench and got in a few times.”
Making the promotion from primarily junior varsity play to the varsity starting lineup are juniors Caleigh Anderson and Olivia Astolfi and sophomore Hunter Chervenitz and Brandi Sorokin.
Anderson is an outside hitter, Astolfi is the libero and Sorokin a middle hitter. Diaco called Chervenitz “a jack of all trades” who will spend most of her time at setter and outside hitter.
“They’re the main corps right now,” Diaco said. “They’re also my four captains.”
The rest of the 24-player roster is entirely new to trying to play at the varsity level.
Junior Monica Henderson and freshman Sarah Ktytor are likely to complete the starting lineup, but Diaco expects to use many players while trying to set the team up for another climb through the WVC.
“We’re going to play with a rotation a lot,” Diaco said.
That rotation will probably include juniors Jonelle Olaviany and Kayla Forelenza, sophomores Marissa Traglia and Jenna Chackan and freshman Selena Forlenza.
“Our goal is to gain experience with this year,” Diaco said. “We do have athletic girls that are still learning the sport. As long as they don’t get intimidated, and they use this year as kind of a retooling year, it will have been a success.”
Although the WVC season started Friday, Wyoming Area does not have its first league match scheduled until playing Hanover Area at home Wednesday.
