The Olton Fillies’ varsity volleyball team is off and running to begin the 2024 campaign under Head Coach Taniqua McFarland, who is into her first year at the helm of the Fillies Volleyball program.
Coach McFarland is in her sixth year of coaching and this year, she is assisted by Lety Jimenez and Gale Ehlo.
Last year, the Fillies made the post season, but lost in the first round of the play-offs to West Texas in four sets, 1-3.
This year, the Fillies hold a 10-9 record overall as of Sept. 3rd.
The Fillies returned seven players from last year’s squad, including seniors, Adrienne Struve, Ciara Zermeno and Analise Ramage and juniors, Kambri Ruiz, Denisse Alvarado, Amiee Beelitz and Kaitlyn Avalos.
“Adrienne, whom I call the Silent Killer has stepped up and leads the team as their captain and through her actions,” the coach explained.
New to the team this year are senior, Rebekka Lopez, and sophomore, Kaybree Ramon, who both came up from the JV, and newcomers, sophomore, Kalajah Monroe and freshman, Taryn Smith.
“Each Player brings something different and much needed to our team,” Coach McFarland said. “Each player has an individual role and they play it well.”
The coach talked about who her leaders have been so far this year, saying, “Adrienne leads by example, while Analise is my vocal leader. My back row plays together as our defensive leaders and my front row attackers are definitely our offensive leaders. My back row leads the team overall, I tell them all the time, we are nothing without them.”
Coach McFarland stated that she feels their strengths thus far in the season are their blockers, hitters and setters, as well as how scrappy they are.
“These girls have that dog in them,” she said.
She added, “Some things we need to work on is being consistent having the dog in them every game.”
She talked about how she feels their pre-district schedule will get them ready for district, saying, “We have a pretty hard pre-district schedule to where I believe in district we are going to be well prepared for every fight we come against.”
She added, “We have a pretty good district, but I’m confident that we can come out of it ready for a play-off run.”
The Fillies will open district play on Sept 21st at Ropes, before hosting Abernathy on Tuesday, Sept. 24th. The rest of their district schedule is as follows: Saturday, Sept. 28th at Tahoka; Tuesday, Oct. 1st home against Plains; Saturday, Oct. 5th at Post; Tuesday, Oct. 8th home against Ropes; Saturday, Oct. 12th at Abernathy; Tuesday, Oct. 15th home against Tahoka and they will close out the regular season on Tuesday Oct. 22nd at Plains.
Tuesday games will begin at 6 p.m. with the exception of the Oct. 15th game against Tahoka beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday games will begin at noon except for the Sept. 28th game against Tahoka, which will begin at 1 p.m.