TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — The Trojan volleyball team took to the court for the first time in front of the Trojan faithful this year.

The exhibition was a warmup for all the players and also younger players first chance to get a feel for the game at a collegiate level.

“Younger players need to kind of break the ice a little bit,” said Volleyball Head Coach Josh Lauer. “You know they’re super excited they’ve put in a lot of hard work but they still need to get out there and be in your jersey and playing another team, because next week it counts.”

Along with new faces, Trojan familiars like Amiah Butler and Kalina Calvillo also shined. Coming off a stellar season with the Trojans last year, with 275 kills and 129 digs, Butler was named to the preseason all-conference team. This season will also see her stepping into more of a leadership role.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations with Amiah, you know how she needs to stay even,” Lauer said. “She’s an emotional player, super competitive, so she holds herself to a high standard so sometimes she gets really hard on herself.

“I think she understands how she needs to let that go and let the team understand like I’ve got this, I have your back and I think she did that well today and that’s gonna be a theme throughout the whole season for her.”

Lauer says the mix of veterans and newcomers will be a critical component of this team going forward into the season.

“The journey for this team is gonna be incremental as the season goes on,” Lauer said. “We have a lot of upper classmen but we don’t have a lot of playing time experience right now.

“We’re a little inexperienced even though we have some older players, the people are going to be taking on some bigger roles and things like that and that’s going to be progressive as the season goes on.”

The Trojans are now preparing to face Georgia on Saturday, Aug. 30 in Birmingham.