More than a handful of familiar faces were setting and serving back and forth Monday morning on the opening day of practice for the Lakeville South girls volleyball team.
Cougars coach Steve Willingham didn’t have to spend as much time giving instructions to eight players on the middle court who are returning from his Class 4A championship squad.
For the first time in his 12 state appearances, Willingham won it all last year. Another new experience for him is that Lakeville South is the preseason team to beat in Minnesota high school girls volleyball.
“We’ve been able to be in the mix to be a top-10 team for a while,” Willingham said. “Nobody said the words ‘state champion’ in our gym today, but I do think it will be a little bit different vibe.”
They will be a target once the season starts Aug. 28 vs. Stewartville, but the Cougars are already carrying higher expectations than last year, when they finished 32-2, including 12-0 in the South Suburban.
The challenge of repeating as state champions “made us more motivated,” junior outside hitter Elle Utecht said.
Wayzata won consecutive state titles with four straight from 2019-23, excluding the cancelled COVID-19 tournament. Marshall won three in a row in Class 3A from 2021-23.
“Just because we won state last year we can’t settle,” senior outside hitter Romi Chlebecek said. “One isn’t enough. We want another one. We can take what we learned from last year and put that into practice and grow. Every team is going to play its best against us.”