Volleyball team opens regular season on Monday

The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball looks to build on last season's successes as they begin the new season Monday.

The volleyball team qualified for the State Tournament for the first time in over 15 years and look to be even better this season. 

"I have been really impressed with the new players we have added this season," Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball coach Carmelo Eleutiza said. "The one thing I really like is that we have more depth at every position. We wanted to improve our depth at outside hitter and think we have that with Teagan (Abraham), Rylie (Patrick) and Fabiola (Rivera). I also think we have improved at libero with the additions of Yuleidy (Torres) and Jaremis (Maldonado). They give us a lot of depth in all aspects."

The volleyball team will begin the regular season on the road Monday against Palm Beach State College before hosting the Panthers on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. Palm Beach State College is 1-0 on the season after defeating South Florida State College in five sets last week.

Wednesday night's home opener is the first of 10 home games for the Titans this season.

"Our main goal is to always go as far as we can, we want to take it one step at a time, but the goal is always to try to make it back to the state tournament and the national tournament. That is the goal for any coach," Eleutiza said. "We have nine teams in the conference and six make the state tournament, I believe we have the capacity to be one of the top six teams. We just have to play our best. I am pretty confident with this team that we can compete with the top teams in the conference."

The team returns four players from last year's team including Giselle Giraud who was named to the conference first team as a freshman. Joining Giraud is middle blocker Desiree Cruz, middle and right side Charlette Ayala and setter Janleen De Jesus. Joining them is sophomore transfer Maria Cordova who will also be a setter for the Titans.

The mix of experience and freshmen will help the team as they play in a tough Suncoast Conference this season.

"I hope that we can keep improving our defense, I think our defense was one of the better ones in the state last year and I hope it continues to improve," Eleutiza said. "Ultimately, I hope the fans will see a team that is fighting for every point, that doesn't give up. The core and chemistry of this team is really good, they are communicating and understanding the training. We are just trying to get better every day and be good at the fundamentals."

You can follow the volleyball team all season at efsctitans.com