The Piedmont High School girls volleyball team is ready for the campaign with a bucketful of new players. Just four seniors fill the roster and most of the players are new to varsity.
“We are very young and not super-experienced,” Highlanders coach Mariah Cardenas said. “It’s going to be a big learning curve. Who’s going to sink or swim. I only have two juniors, six-seven sophomores. It’s a very young group. Piedmont’s future looks full of potential and very bright. This year is building the foundation for what’s to come the next couple of years.”
Fiona Olson (1), Julia Stokes (14) and Nora Trombi (12) react to a point 
Charli Panico eyes her serve
Middle blocker Juliana DeYoung is a senior returning to varsity.
“She has gotten so much stronger through the years,” Cardenas said. “You can tell she has been putting in the work to get better.”
Senior setter Annika Hattan-Kutter also has varsity experience from a year ago.
“She has a lot of responsibility and a lot of weight on her shoulders,” Cardenas said. “She’s the quarterback of the team. She’s going to have to learn to hold it down.”
Senior Sophie Glass is an opposite hitter with a lot of power.
“She’s very quiet but she’ll hit the ball,” Cardenas said. “You blink and it’s already on the ground.”
Libero Kalindi Kim is the other senior on the roster.
“She’s extremely good,” Cardenas said. “She’s a hustler, she’s a go-getter. Kalindi is someone who has truly earned the court time. She is always bettering the ball.”
Freshman setter Allyson Huynh is showing she belongs on varsity.
“She’s pretty good,” Cardenas said. “She has a lot of raw talent. You can tell when someone is a true setter and she is definitely a true setter.”
Julia Stokes is another freshman. She’ll be at middle blocker. She has two brothers who played for the Piedmont boys volleyball team.
Cardenas is optimistic, especially about the long-term future.
“I let them know that we are young but I still feel like we have a lot of potential,” she said. “Throwing out a bunch of different ideas for rotation. We’ve never played together before so we have to learn how to play with each other before we can be successful. When we find a groove we’ll probably be very successful. Maybe not this year. but it’s looking like we have a huge shot to be in it (in the future).”
The team opened the season with a four-set loss at home to Deer Valley on August 28. The Wolverines won, 25-23, 17-25, 27-25, 25-23.