Each season, no matter the sport, always starts with an unknown; it comes with the territory. Every single team around the nation starts with 0-0, and when everyone’s record is 0-0, that means anything can happen, and the Georgia Southern volleyball team had big dreams.

At the beginning of the season, seniors Jamie DeRatt and Kym Coley had big aspirations for their team. Coley wanted her final season to go undefeated while DeRatt wanted another appearance in the NCAA tournament. Coach Wood also had plans for the NCAA Tournament, electing for the team to have a long away stint to start the season so the team could get used to traveling.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, an undefeated season was dashed right at the beginning and kept getting worse and worse. They managed to lose 12 straight consecutive matches, before finally getting a win against Troy at home. However for the Eagles, home at the beginning of the season wasn’t home at the end of the season.

The Eagles actually started their home games at Statesboro High School which has a much different atmosphere than Hanner. That’s possibly the reason that the Eagles went 1-4 at Statesboro High, compared to 4-3 at Hanner. They also lost their first match at the high school compared to the 3-0 victory they had at their first match back at Hanner.

The final record at the end of the season never tells the entire story, because looking at the stats you see a familiar sight. DeRatt and Coley led their teams in kills, but right behind them came the future of Eagle volleyball in freshmen Megan Chevalier and Cathrine Murray.

Both Murray and Chevalier had over 220 kills and had an attacking percentage of over 10. Time will tell to see if they’re the real deal when they don’t have Coley and DeRatt to help back them up.

So what is there to say about this season now that I’m done covering it? We’re okay, and it’s going to be alright. It was our first season in a brand new conference and we still did better in conference play than two other teams. So even though we had our first losing season in a long time, next season will still be one to watch.