By Chris Zorbas
 
The Windsor Lancers women's volleyball team is looking forward to the 2019-20 season. This year's team is young but that's something head coach Lucas Hodgson isn't too worried about it.
 
Despite the youth, star Lexi Pollard is back as well as OUA all-stars Ally Winik and Brooke Davis. The Lancers were dealt a tough blow in the preseason, losing one of the best scorers in the OUA in Paige Phills due to injury, however coach Hodgson said one of the strengths of this year's team is depth.
 
"I'm comfortable putting anyone in," said Hodgson. "I can put any player in and know they're going to make us better and help us win, it's not a step down, it's a step across."
 
Dealing with the young roster, the blue and gold will be adapting their style this year for a style that better fits the Lancers talents. They feel like they're going to be a tough team to score on.
 
"We feel like we can play with the best teams," explained Hodgson. "We're just going to have to play with a different style, speed and energy than what did before, which was banging away. We're going to play a serve defend style, we're going to serve tough and dig a lot of balls."
 
Hodgson continued, "I think we are going to surprise teams with our hard work and tenacity instead of just trying to hit with the bigger teams because we're a little smaller. We'll have to change our game, work harder, make sure a ball doesn't hit the ground and make our opponents work for every point."
 
The Lancers, despite being young, have a baptism by fire waiting for them as they play five straight OUA West opponents including playoff teams Waterloo and Brock to open their OUA season.
 
"It's both exciting and scary because you can't take a game off," said Hodgson. "It's going to be a lot of fun but that's going to be the biggest thing for us in the beginning is learning the speed and importance of every point. Most of these kids in club you play seven games a day, in our league, you get one chance to play a good game."
 
The inexperience won't phase the Lancers however as Coach Hodgson said they have a great atmosphere around practice and a great mentality, mentioning new Lancers Magan Gahima, Nicole Woelk, Yaila Sealy, Emma De Souza and Erin Dane as players to watch.
 
"We had a little lull last week," said Hodgson. "But so far this week the girls have been getting after each other, holding each other accountable and really taking things to heat about how we want to be known as a team that's the hardest working. These rookies are a big part of that. "
 
The Lancers open their season Friday, October 25th in St. Catherine's against the Brock Badgers. Service gets underway at 6:00 pm and you can watch live at www.OUA.tv.