By Mia Drake

Varsity head coach Roel De Anda had a great season last year and hopes to continue the streak this season after a summer of team improvement.

“We’ve had a really strong summer, off-season and now it’s just time to go back to work,” De Anda said. “The season goes by fast, six weeks comes and goes.”

This year, DeAnda may have his best team yet.

“We are on the hunt,” De Anda said. “I’d like to say we will come out one or two, but there’s a lot of things that go into that. One, we have to play well. Two, we have to be healthy. And three, we have to have good team chemistry. It will be a dogfight Friday night, but that’s what practice is for.”

Coming off a 33-5 season and a loss to Tascosa in the UIL State Volleyball Championships, El Dorado had many players return from last year and a new plan on improving the team.

“On and off the court, team chemistry is really important with us,” DeAnda said. “We have a lot of returning players in key positions, but now it’s building the chemistry to make sure we can go deep on a playoff run.”

Starting athletes are: senior Alexis Alegre (setter), senior Victoria Pearson and junior Ebony Ballesteros (middle blockers), senior Stephanie Diaz (return and outside) and junior Clarissa Menchaca (libero and former DS)

The first game of the season is tonight at 6 p.m. at Andress High School, the home of the Eagles. Check back for a recap of tonight’s game later this week and look for the posted game schedule.