VALDOSTA — After winning more Gulf South Conference games in 2005 than it did the season before, the Valdosta State volleyball team is ready to improve for the second season under sophomore coach Sia Poyer.

The Blazers, winning three regular season games and zero conference games in 2004, improved to a ten win season last year while winning one conference match.

Heading into the 2006 season with the first week of practice winding down the Blazers feel this year will lead to even more improvement.

“Compared to last year’s team, yes,” Poyer said. “We’re just much more improved all the way around.”

Combined with five seniors who were on the team last year, the Blazers also have several incoming players both transfers and freshman.

“We got new kids, and so far they’re going to be able to help us out,” Poyer said. “It’s a good mixture of freshman and transfers.”

With four days of fall practice under their belts, the Blazers, old and new, have come together and are forming a tight squad that will help lead to better performances on the court.

“(Poyer) recruited some awesome girls this year, and our personalities mesh really well, which is a good thing,” senior Laura Lee Atkinson said. “If you don’t get along off the court, then you can’t get along on the court.

“The girls that came in, it’s just like we’re a family of sisters and that’s really good. I think that’s going to push us over the edge with other teams. We don’t fight, we stick together, and I think that will be better.”

Atkinson was the Blazers’ go to offensive threat in 2005 and will be joined by more offensive options when VSU kicks off the season Aug. 25 at St. Mary’s in San Antonio.

Along with Valerie Haven, Atkinson was an outside hitter who the Blazers went to often for offense.

This season the Blazers will add middle blockers such as Grace George and Nancy Marin to their offensive repertoire.

“We have more hitters,” Atkinson said. “So I think we’ll be more aggressive on the front row.”

The added offensive presence should help the Blazers overcome close matches, which they encountered often in ’05.

“I’m really excited to see how we do against bigger schools because last year we had a lot of five-game matches, and we were so close everytime,” Atkinson said. “This year, I think we have an extra little component we didn’t have last year.”

In practices during the early part of the season, the Blazers have been working on getting the ball to its offensive weapons.

“Our ball control is a lot better which always helps if you can pass the ball,” Poyer said.

The Blazers practices have also gone smoother from the beginning as players seem to handle even the smallest detail with more ease.

“The drills that we did, last year we struggled to get through them and this year we’re just breezing through them,” Atkinson said. “Coach said, ‘That took 30 minutes last year’ and this year we just breeze through them.”

As the Blazers won seven more games in Poyer’s first year, the team is optimistic that another big rise is on the horizon. And with the new players, team chemistry and more offensive options VSU has made big improvements.

“I think we’ve improved in every aspect,” Atkinson said. Even the returning girls have gotten better over the summer.”