New-look Matanzas volleyball team sets bar high

The Matanzas Pirates are a young volleyball team with lofty goals. 

Goal 1 this season is to win 18 games, two more than last year. Goal 2 is to win the district championship. With reigning state champ New Smyrna Beach standing in the way in District 4-6A, reaching that goal would send shock waves around the state.

The Pirates got off to a good start, winning five straight games in their preseason tournament on Thursday, Aug. 17. But it won’t be long before they get their first major test. They host New Smyrna Beach on Thursday, Aug. 24.

Matanzas has just three seniors on the roster, but they also have three talented underclassmen who start — sophomore libero Rylan Miller, freshman setter Grace Taylor and freshman outside hitter/setter Keri Petro. They also have seven juniors with experience.

“The freshmen look really good, and Rylan is just a solid player. She’s always in the right position,” coach Dawn Moses said.

Miller, one of the top young liberos in the country, has been invited to participate in USA Volleyball’s National Team Development Program Fall Training Series on Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Colorado Springs.

While the young players will be key to the team’s success, the Pirates are led by a pair of seniors in Francesca Good and team captain Senna Thayer. They led the team in kills last season. Thayer, and outside hitter, had 210. Good, a 6-foot-tall middle blocker, had 150.

Thayer provides energy, while Good provides power. They both provide leadership.

“The second Senna sees someone down, she picks them up,” Good said. “She’s full of energy.”

The nice thing about this group is they don’t care who gets the credit.”
—DAWN MOSES, Matanzas volleyball coach  

Thayer led the Pirates with 16 kills in the preseason tournament. Matanzas beat St. Joseph 2-0 in the opening match and then beat Gainesville Buchholz 3-0 in the championship match. They trailed Buchholz 22-17 in the first set before rallying to a 25-23 victory. Matanzas won the next two sets, 25-15 and 25-18.

“It was nice to see that they can dig themselves out of a hole,” Moses said.

The key, Thayer and Good said, was communication.

“We have a lot of fresh faces and a lot of new rotations,” Thayer said. “But it’s good to see everybody’s come together. We all do a good job talking to each other.”

Good has been on the team since she was a freshman, but she said she got serious around the middle of her sophomore season, when she realized she had the potential to play college volleyball. Now, after two years of playing club volleyball, she has become a Division I prospect.

“She’s crazy,” Thayer said. “She’s a beast. She gets so pumped now.”

Moses, who is beginning her second season in her second stint as the Pirates’ head coach, said there are no egos on the team.

“The nice thing about this group is they don’t care who gets the credit,” she said.