A year removed from a state championship appearance and the graduation of significant talent from last year’s team, the Powell Panther volleyball team is eyeing another strong season under new leadership.

“It’s been really great,” first-year coach Anna Flitner said last Thursday. “The girls have been working super hard, we put them through quite a few workouts in this first week. We’ve done lots of skills and conditioning, try out stuff, and they’ve worked really hard.”

Heading into this year, the Panthers will need to replace the production of three-time All-State selection Addy Thorington, along with All-State setter Stevee Walsh and other seniors including Waycee Harvey, Kenzie Fields and Maci Borders.

Flitner feels like the Panthers are bringing back a strong amount of talent from last year’s team, with many seniors returning including All-Conference libero Alexa Richardson, Catelynn Floy, Saige Kidd, Kodee Asay, Haylee Akin and Peyton Borcher, alongside sophomore Leah Graham who saw varsity playing time late last season.

“The great part about this team for the varsity level is there are so many people,” Flitner said. “We have lots of returners, and we have such an even spread, which I think may make it challenging to play against us.”

In addition to those returning, the Panthers have added in a transfer student to the rotation, with Addison Holdcomb moving to Powell from Oregon.

With older talent abundant, Flitner said the team also has talented younger players moving up through the ranks in the program.

“We have lots of talent coming up too, in the freshman class especially,” Flitner said.

With the returning talent, Flitner is hopeful that the Panthers will adapt to a faster offensive pace, as she expects them to be working on it this week in anticipation of the first tournament.

“We plan to start implementing our setters practice so coach (Chelsi) Graham can work with our setters on getting repetitions and that faster pace,” Flitner said. “Then we can work with them and get connections with our hitters.”

Running a faster offense comes with the luxury of several setters on the Panthers. Flitner said they are still trying to decide whether or not to play in a 5-1 or a 6-2 offense this upcoming season as the Panthers have several rotational options for setters.

“The great thing is we have lots of options,” Flitner said. “We just have to decide on what option we like best and what kind of fits. So we might try out a few things.”

Starting out the year the Panthers are heading on the road to Lander to take part in a tournament on Friday and Saturday.

“A lot of it is just feeling it out, feeling how they play next to each other, seeing if there’s anything we need to switch around,” Flitner said. “I always like to say, let’s focus on the things that we can control, the little things, and the big things will come. So we focus every day on blocking, footwork, technique, our platform for passing and we serve-receive every single day.”

She said that the Panthers will continue to focus on the small things early on, before moving into scouting other teams later as they progress.

The matchups for the Lander tournament were not available as of press time Monday.