Following a long and frustrating season last year Douglas’ volleyball coach Lorena Tapia is hoping she can change things as the 2008 season is just a week away.

Bruce Whetten / The Daily Dispatch Michelle Chavez goes up for the block in the Lady Bulldogs volleyball practice last week. The Lady Bulldogs will hold their annual Black vs. Gold scrimmage tonight at 6 p.m. in the DHS gym. The scrimmage is free to the public. Douglas kicks off its season next Tuesday with a home game with Pueblo. Freshmen play at 4 p.m. , junior varsity at 5 and the varsity at 6 p.m. Admission to the athletic events is $4.

Tapia’s Lady Bulldogs will have a Black vs. Gold scrimmage tonight at 6 p.m. in the DHS gym. The scrimmage is open free of charge to the public.

The Lady Bulldogs kick off their season Sept. 2 with a 6 p.m. home game against the Pueblo Warriors.

Tapia has seven players returning from last year’s team and she is hoping those returners will help make this season an enjoyable one for all.

Returning this year are Lina Campbell, Erika Tapia, Hilda Galvez, Michelle Chavez, Elise Urquijo, Cory Vega and Victoria Lara. Illiana Solis, who saw limited playing time with the varsity last year, will be up with the squad full time this year. Ariana Zaragosa is the lone new comer to the varsity squad.

“Things are looking very good so far,” Coach Tapia said. “These girls are motivated; they’re dedicated to the squad and they’re out here working hard.”

Tapia had approximately 56 girls try out for the freshmen, junior varsity and varsity squads. Once the cuts were made Tapia kept nine on the varsity, 10 on the junior varsity and 13 at the freshmen level.

Katie Walker is Tapia’s junior varsity coach and Carlos Chavez is coaching the freshmen team.

Tapia says keeping nine players on the varsity will allow for more quality playing time for her players.

The coach said while her daughter Erika and Lina Campbell will be looked to for their hitting abilities Urquijo is going to be the key because of her setting abilities.

“We’re going to be depending on her a lot,” the coach said of Urquijo.

Chavez and Galvez are also expected to contribute as is Vega who will be Tapia’s libero, a back row specialist.

Chemistry wise the coach said things are going a lot smoother.

“The girls are communicating well with each other,” she said. “They seem to get a long.”

Tapia says in any sport you will have some friction but she is confident these girls are mature enough to get over it rather quickly.

“This particular group of girls is very talented,” she said. “They are three sport athletes and they’re very disciplined. That’s what you need.”

During the summer Tapia was able to get her volley ballers into several different activities.

They were given a volleyball camp in May in the DHS gym by coaches from Arizona State University and Hawaii who came to town and demonstrated several new things to Tapia’s squad.

“The girls loved it,” she said. “They picked up so much. These coaches worked with the girls on a one to one basis. I had 24 girls here and those two coaches worked with each girl on some things they can do to improve their game.”

There was also open gym plus weekly trips to Tucson for additional training.

Tapia says she and her players are anxious to take what they’ve learned this past summer and apply it to the court once the season officially begins next week.