BENTON (WSIL) --
Benton Volleyball finished 25-10 last year and made it all the way to a regional championship. They graduated seven athletes and this years group is led by three seniors. The motto is simple, "Do your job."
A lot of kids, they'll see another kid as being weaker and they want to cover for them and that makes you weaker because it leaves you open and these kids have to realize to take care of themselves and do their job and they will compliment their team, they won't hurt their team. Let that kid learn that spot and don't step in front and try to take the ball if they are weaker than them, that's a coaches job to decide that, it's not a players job so that's my job to put those kids out there so if that kid seems to get weaker, we make an adjustment.
The summer is when the Rangers focus on fundamental and identify roles.
We're really, really close and all of us have great attitudes,, all of us have known each other for years, I think we are going to get along really well and our team work is going to be really good,," Benton senior outside hitter Makenna Mumbower said.
"We really have to work together if we want to be successful, all of us take a part and play our role, or back row is what we usually rely on the most and they are really good," Benton senior right side hitter Sesley Tedeschi
said.
"I like how we encourage each other to do our best and just work as a team," Cailyn Fowlkes, a senior who plays back row for Benton said.
"I think you go in with your confidence and trust your teammates and our girls are so quick on our feet and we trust each other," Mumbower said.
"When those setters set those outside hitters and they don't set that middle, that's their job and their job is to listen to me, Carlton said.. "You can't get mad the setter for not setting you, she takes her cues from me and that's very important. When kid understand that, it takes pressure off of kids. It's coach told me to do it, it's not I like that person better than you, that's my friend and I think they do better. They all have roles just like I have a role. Once they accept that, and this team does that very well, we do a good job and that's what makes us a unit."
And right out of the gate, practices are competitive and challenging.
"It's definitely pushing everyone to do their best to earn their spot this year," Mumbower said. "I think it's good for us and I think we needed to do that right out of the gate and make sure we're not messing around and getting it done this year."
"We're all ready to get up and play, yeah we're all supporting each other as a team but we want to have our one spot, and compete and work hard and just give energy," Fowlkes said.
"I love being competitive," Tedeschi said." "It just push ourselves hard than we'd normally push ourselves whenever we have competition, just makes it better for us."
"We do a lot of passing drills, lots of movements, like quick on your feet to get us going and it will definitely play in our favor this season," Mumbower said.
The three seniors looked up to last years group of leaders. Now it's their turn and it's something they've been preparing for since last season.
"Yeah me, Cailyn and Makenna played a lot of JV last year, and we were all working with the younger girls too so we all played together, even as we played with the varsity, we still played with the JV and were working into a leader role and trying to bring us all together and work together."
