BOONVILLE -- For all intents and purposes, Starmount's volleyball program is loaded again this season.
Barring anything unforeseen, the reigning state runners-up should finish among the top four or eight 2A teams in the state when all is said and done.
But the journey between now and late October to early November could be filled with several learning curve moments.
The Rams, who lost six contributing members of last year's team to graduation, experienced a couple this week, losing a marathon five-game match at perennial playoff contender West Davidson on Wednesday night, then turning around to open conference play the following evening.
Coach Jon Symons was pleased to see his group's bounce-back ability in Thursday's 25-8, 25-16, 25-12 triumph over Surry Central at home.
"There are a lot of things that we have to replace," Symons said following the Surry Central match. "Mary Katherine Taylor (last year's libero, now at Wake Forest) played enough defense and enough serve receive for two people, and we're replacing that.
"We're replacing Taylor Doss, a quiet leader and a good leader of our team (who is now playing at Catawba). Now, you're looking to younger kids who haven't yet seen a day of high school to take those spots. You're going to have some growing pains."
Wednesday's duel at West Davidson -- a rematch of last year's 2A West semifinals -- certainly had a playoff atmosphere. The homestanding Dragons won the first game 38-36, then took game two 25-22.
Starmount rebounded to take the next two sets convincingly, 25-18 and 25-9.
In game five (which only goes to 15 points), the Rams led 14-11 before faltering on three match points. West eventually took the set and the match 17-15, prompting a wild celebration from Dragons players.
Starmount senior Jana Matthews had a whopping 31 kills to lead the way yet it still wasn't quite enough against one of the Rams' biggest 2A volleyball rivals in recent years.
"We had three match points, but in that rotation we struggled a little bit offensively," Symons said. "I told Olivia Gough, who was on the bench with me, 'We might be done. We don't have any offense on the floor.'"
The 2008 Rams will build around the senior all-conference triumvirate of Meme Brown (middle), Jordan Raye (setter) and Matthews (outside). Cory Hutchens is a returning junior who was a regular on varsity last season.
The rest of the lineup will be filled by players with little varsity game experience -- seniors Taylor Moxley, Lauren Cook and Rachel Dobson; juniors Skylar Davenport and Rosie Crissman; sophomores Brett Doss and Ashley Wilkins, and freshman Gough and Brensley Stewart.
The Surry Central win was a big step for the varsity newcomers. Starmount pretty much controlled things from the outset, bolting to a 21-5 lead in game one.
Surry Central scored the first two points of game two, but the Rams responded with an 11-2 run. The lead eventually grew to 18-5 before the Golden Eagles roared back to pull within 23-16 after a kill by Kelly Hemmings
Central's rally ended with a serve into the net, and Starmount earned the point after that to take the game.
Starmount never trailed in the third game, building leads of 4-0 and 11-5. The Eagles hung tough as Symons played a number of reserves, fighting back to make it 14-10.
But Matthews, Raye and Brown stepped up to close things out. Raye had two aces down the stretch and two more well-placed serves to end it.
For the match, the Rams had 14 aces. Matthews finished with 13 kills, while Brown had nine and Raye 6. The Starmount junior varsity team also won, sweeping its best-of-three match in two games.
"(Thursday) we were focused. This is the way we have to play," Symons said. "We had to have it and they stepped up big. I told them, 'You can't lose. You can't go 0-1 in the conference.'"
Starmount experienced the toughest August of maybe anyone in the state. The Rams opened against Mount Tabor, a perennial 4A power last Wednesday. Then the Rams faced Cardinal Gibbons, nationally ranked in 2007, in a rematch of the 2A state title game on Friday in Greensboro.
Both of those contests were losses, and that was followed by the "Great Eight" tournament on Saturday, which featured all eight state finalists from all four classifications.
Symons has scheduled several mid-week matches through the remainder of the season against tough non-conference competition, including a home rematch against West Davidson on Sept. 17. Moorsville visits next week, along with county rival Forbush.
The goal -- to get ready for October and November, when matches like Starmount-West Davidson will be for who moves on in the playoffs and who sees the season come to an end.
"West Davidson, when they beat us, celebrated like they won a state championship," Symons said.
"I told the girls, when you lose a match, it doesn't make a difference who it is, it makes their season. We're walking around with a big target on our backs. We went to the state finals last year and everyone wants to get us."
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