Senior-Laden Lady Leps Volleyball Team Ready to Open 2023 Season
La Grange volleyball has become the model of consistent success among all the sports at the school.
For three consecutive years the Lady Leps have tied for the district title.
But it’s also been a bittersweet sort of success, as the Lady Leps have tied for that title with rival Giddings all three years.
“That’s a streak we’d like to break, but there are other traditions we’d like to continue,” said La Grange head coach Leslie Coltrain.
She and her Lady Leps begin the season Tuesday at Weimar in the regular season opener. Before then they have scrimmages Friday at Schulenburg, Saturday morning at home, and then their alumni game Saturday at 6 p.m. at the LHS gym.
Coltrain begins her sixth season with the Lady Leps this year, which means this year’s seniors started volleyball in the seventh grade when she arrived.
And a whopping seven of those seniors have remained in the program, which gives this 2023 group one of the most veteran feels of any recent team.
“It’s hard to believe they are seniors,” Coltrain said of Phoebe Tucker, Jena Jobb, Lyndie Edson, Tori Harold, Teagan Branch, Haylie Cooper and Mara Colon. “I’ve had them all the way through. They are a really fun group. They have varied personalities. I’m so proud of the kind of servant leaders they have become. They don’t wait for someone else to do it, they step in and do what needs to be done.”
For Harold and Jobb, this is their third year on varsity. Harold (a first team all-district player last year) will miss some time early this season because of an injury, but Jobb is the returning district Defensive Player of the Year.
Tucker, Cooper (a first team-all district selection last year) and Colon return for their second season on varsity, while Edson and Branch are making their varsity debuts.
The rest of the varsity shapes up this way: Juniors Landri Hernandez, Cara Homer and Kaylee Holmes will all be varsity newcomers.
Sophomores Kylie Trlicek (last year’s district Newcomer of the Year) and Carley Ulrich return after both made the varsity as freshman last year. They are joined by sophomore varsity newcomer Faith Greenwood.
Also freshman Kenna Lamza has made the team.
That’s the squad Coltrain will send to the court to try to build on last year’s team that went 27-20 and went to the second round of the playoffs.
But a trio of varsity fixtures graduated off that team. Camille Gonzalez, Maddi Fritz and Hailey Hill (who have both gone on to play D-I college volleyball in Louisiana).
“I am eager to see what kind of mark this team leaves,” Coltrain said. “We are pretty young offensively. Defensively we have some veterans leading us.
“We relied pretty heavily on those three (graduated) seniors. It’s going to feel fresh. It’s going to be a different look. People won’t know what to expect from us. I think we will pleasantly surprise some people.
“There is going to be a lot of growth from this group – very fast.”