Siuslaw girls volleyball coach Angie Herring can't wait to see her Vikings take to the court Thursday (Aug. 27) at Marshfield High School.

"We're doing great; we're excited to get out there and play," says the second-year coach. "We've got a lot of good, solid returnees, as well as some good talent coming up."

Anchoring the team will be senior setter Hannah Bartlett and junior Elyssa Rose, who will work at middle blocker and outside hitter.

Both players were Far West League first-team all-stars in 2014.

"Hannah's a great returning setter who can do a lot of things with our offense," says Herring. "So I'm excited to try some new things."

The Vikings' varsity and junior varsity will play four games each in the season-opening Marshfield Jamboree, the varsity at Marshfield High School and the junior varsity at North Bend High School.

Siuslaw's first match will be at 10:30 a.m. against host and defending league champion Marshfield. The Vikings play North Bend at 11 a.m., Bandon at noon and Coquille at 12:30 p.m.

The JV team plays Coquille at 10 a.m., Marshfield at 10:30 a.m., South Umpqua at 11 a.m. and North Bend at noon.

Each match is one game, the first team to 25 points the winner.

"I want to try some kids in some positions they may not have played last year, try some new things out," says Herring.

"This is a great group of girls in how they work together as a team."

Siuslaw hosts Philomath in a nonleague home opener at 6 p.m. Tuesday (Sept. 1), then travels to Elmira for a nonleague match Wednesday (Sept. 2) at 6:45 p.m.

The Vikings' league opener is Sept. 15 at South Umpqua and home league opener Sept. 17 against Marshfield.

Complete varsity and junior varsity schedules are under the "Fall schedules" tab on the home page of ExplodingWhaleSports.com.