MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — Megan Blaylock has been associated with the Walters State volleyball program since its birth in 2012, having played and coached under former head coach Jasmin Coleman before taking over as head coach in 2016.

Blaylock, a graduate of Morristown East High School, Walters State and East Tennessee State University, is entering her third season in charge of the Lady Senators and is coming off the most successful season in the program's short history.

Walters State ended up 22-3 last season and achieved several program firsts, including its first ever NJCAA Region VII championship and first ever national ranking.

In order to duplicate last season's breakout success, the Lady Senators will have to navigate a tough schedule with a roster of 10 plays — six returnees and four newcomers — while figuring out what rotations will be the best for the team.

The Lady Senators return Makenzie Jenkins of Cocke County, Hayley Wolfe of Gate City, Brooklyn Ireson of Sullivan South, Kaley Muncy of Morristown West, Sydney Hurd of Sullivan Central and Micayla Vallie of Heritage Home Scholars from last year's team. Newcomers include Jayla Rolle from Langston Hughes High School in Fairburn, Georgia, Olivia Kent of Sullivan South, Courtney Dotson of Greeneville and Lexi Wakefield of Portland.

"We have a small roster this year, but I feel confident with them," Blaylock said. "I feel good with the 10 that we have. It will be a long season because we have 29 regular season matches, which is a great deal more than the amount we have had in the past. The opponents we have scheduled will also make our schedule much more competitive. We have a third of our schedule against (NJCAA) D-1 schools, seven four-year schools on the schedule and add Chattanooga State to our region. It's pretty competitive."

The season begins Friday at Spartanburg Methodist in their annual invitational tournament, where the Lady Senators will face St. John's River, Wallace State, NJCAA newcomer Bryant & Stratton and the host school in a four-match, two-day event. WSCC has 13 road or neutral site contests scheduled before the home opener on Sept. 12 against Bryan College.

Other home games include a visit from Region VII volleyball newcomer Chattanooga State (Sept. 20), back-to-back home tilts with Covenant College (Oct. 1) and Montreat (Oct. 4), a tri-match with Patrick Henry and Cleveland State on Oct. 13 and another tri-match on Oc.t 20 with Snead State and Spartanburg Methodist.

"We're trying to keep everything as high level as possible in order to help us in the postseason," Blaylock said. "Hopefully we can get there with our conference changing a little bit. Chattanooga State joins us and Cleveland State in the region, and Chattanooga has put together an impressive roster for a first-year program. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be difficult, and we will have to learn how to get past some very difficult matches early on in the season. It will only better us."

Walters State, Chattanooga State and Cleveland State make up the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association ledger, as they are the only institutes of the 10 schools in the league to offer volleyball. Cleveland State is in its second year as a volleyball school, while Chattanooga State is competing in its inaugural season.

Blaylock said her goal will be to win the conference title again this season after claiming it a year ago.

"I have high expectations just in general, but our realistic expectations will be to win our conference and be competitive in our postseason play," Blaylock said. "I want to finish higher than third in our district tournament this year. Also I want us to be mentally tough. With the schedule we have, there will be some matches where we are outmanned against some of the D-1 schools we are playing, but we have to be tough and get past those matches.

"We're going to learn right off the bat if we have the guts to make it, and this opening weekend will only benefit us," Blaylock added. "Playing high level teams this early in the season is great. It will teach us a lot about what we need to work on as a team for the rest of the season. We scheduled most of these games after we had our roster put together, so we wouldn't have scheduled it this way if we didn't think this team was capable of competing at a high level."

Erika Waycaster returns this season as the volleyball team's assistant coach. Waycaster was also a member of the program's inaugural team in 2012.