Once again, experience will not be on the side of the Silver Lake High girls volleyball team this season as they continue to rebuild, but opportunities for playing time will be abundant.
The Lakers are coming off a 4-16 season where they fared much better in the second half of the year than they did in the first; while they started the year at 0-8, they won four of their last 12 matches of the season. However, most of that team is no longer with the program as the Lakers graduated nine of their 13 players from last season.
That said, the majority of the roster will not have varsity experience for the Lakers this season. Even so, it will not be a completely new team.
The Lakers are expected to return four seniors this season who have varsity experience. Highlighting this group would be middle hitter Catherine Donovan, who led the team in both kills (80) and blocks (85) last season, as she played in 60 of the team’s 72 sets.
Outside of Donovan, setter Julia Tarantino, who led the team with 188 assists last season, and outside hitter Lindsey Bernasconi, whose 14 aces serving, were each regulars for the Lakers in 2018. The two of them both played in more than 50 sets as juniors. Plus, middle hitter Natasha Tierney gained some valuable experience on varsity, competing in eight sets for the Lakers last season.
The Lakers are scheduled to open up their season on the road against another rebuilding team: Bridgewater-Raynham. Last season, B-R went 0-19 and dropped 57 of the 61 sets they played. That game will take place at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
The Lakers first home game of the season will come one week later on Wednesday, Sept. 11, against Pembroke at 5:15 p.m., a Patriot League team who went 12-8 last season.