LUMBERTON — There’s no question the high school volleyball season, which begins next week, will be different from the seasons held in the past.

But as one of the first two sports to return in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, even with facemask requirements and spectator limitations, there’s still a prevailing positive sentiment — these teams are happy just to have a season.

A countywide jamboree will be held at Lumberton Saturday — Lumberton vs. Red Springs at noon, Purnell Swett vs. St. Pauls at 2 p.m. and Lumberton vs. Fairmont at 4 p.m. — ahead of the start of the regular season, which for most schools is Tuesday.

And — as is typical every year — everyone is hopeful they’ll have a good season, regardless of how much or how little success they’ve previously had.

Lumberton

At the 4A level, Lumberton feels like it could use the extra condititioning it got in the offseason workouts as an advantage.

“Before, we’ve done more skill work, and then because of the pandemic we’ve had to do more conditioning, and I think our girls are going to be in better shape this year and be able to get to more balls,” Pirates coach Mackie Register said.

While the Pirates lost some seniors from last year’s team (13-9 overall, 7-7 Sandhills Athletic Conference), Register thinks the team’s togetherness will make up for those losses.

“We lost a lot of hitters last year, but I think this year we may have better chemistry and a team concept,” Register said. “I think we’ll go a little bit deeper than we did last year with players, there’s going to be different moving parts than what we did last year, it’s going to look different.”

August Smith returns at setter, which Register called a “big plus”; other key players include KeKe Lawrence in the middle, Diamond Harris, Hayden Bullard and Peyton Brooks.

The limited season makes Saturday’s scrimmages that much more important for all the teams, including the Pirates.

“We play in a pretty tough conference in volleyball,” Register said. “So for us to not have the chance to get in some nonconference games, Saturday’s going to be a big key for us to be able to move some parts around, and we’ve still got a lot of questions to answer and we start playing Tuesday.”

Purnell Swett

Purnell Swett has struggled in recent years, but with nine seniors, coach Corey Deese hopes experience turns into improvement.

“(There’s) definitely improvement, leadership,” Deese said. “There’s just a camaraderie because they’ve all been together for so long. We’ll see when we get on the floor against another team, but right now it’s going well.”

The opportunity simply to have a season in the 2020-21 school year is particularly exciting for the Rams (5-18 overall, 4-10 SAC), since more than half the varsity roster is seniors.

“We’re excited that we’re getting to have a season,” Deese said. “The girls are really excited just to be back on the court and be able to do what they love doing.”

Among those seniors, Deese looks to Alonna Locklear, Madison Harris and Kaitlyn Locklear to be her key players.

“Alonna’s big, so she brings size and power,” Deese said. “Maddie is just a smart player, a team player, an all-around player. Kaitlyn, with her hands, she just puts the ball where you need it.”

St. Pauls

At the 2A level, of the three Robeson County schools in the Three Rivers Conference, St. Pauls had the best season in 2019 (12-9 overall, 11-5 TRC). While Bulldogs coach Jory Barnes said the team has been understandably rusty so far, she likes where they’re headed.

“I can definitely tell we’ve had quite a lot of time off; we didn’t get to have our preseason,” Barnes said. “They look pretty good, considering where we’ve started most years in the past. They’re better than where we’ve been starting, but I don’t think that we are where we ended last season.”

The Bulldogs team is a blend of youth and experience, with six seniors but some underclassmen ready to step into some key roles.

“We have never been a big team, a tall team. We do have some underclassman that have a little bit of height on them,” Barnes said. “Depending on if they step up and do what we need them to do, I think we’ll have a good shot of being as successful if not more successful than we were last year.”

Barnes looks to setter Savanna Lowery, a fourth-year varsity player, to be her senior leader, while sophomore Syniah Baldwin could break out at the libero position.

“(Savanna) has always been a phenomenal volleyball player, all the way around, and she will be really good this year,” Barnes said. “Syniah is really fundamentally strong, and I think she’ll rise to the challenge on varsity that we need her to be.”

Fairmont

In recent years, the biggest thing holding back Fairmont (8-12 overall, 8-8 TRC) has been close losses. Golden Tornadoes coach Michael Baker hopes that will change this year.

“You know how Mack Brown said ‘you’ve got to teach them how to win’? We lost several matches 3-2,” Baker said. “I’ve been stressing in practices the last couple days is how to win those close games. Little things, you’ve got to take care of them.”

Baker wishes the season was longer — not just so his team, which includes six seniors, could have the opportunity to play more games, but also so they could get better over the course of a full-length season.

“We were very young last year, so I have a lot of girls that’s coming back,” Baker said. “It’s just so short of a season, you’ve just got to be ready to go right from the start, and we need some time for that mix of new girls that’s coming in that were sophomores last year.”

Baker said senior Shekinah Lennon was the team’s No. 1 hitter last year, and also said setter Alexis Hinson and hitter Santana Anderson could be key for the Golden Tornadoes. He also said Dajsha Fields is coming on strong for his team.

“(Fields) has got a volleyball body, long arms, long legs, about 5-foot-10, and she’s got a good whip arm, a good arm swing,” Baker said. “She can pass, she’ll set it, she does a lot of things right, for it to be just her third year playing volleyball.”

Red Springs

Red Springs (3-16 overall, 3-13 TRC) has won just five games over the last two seasons, but with seven seniors and some key underclassmen, Red Devils coach Nicole Strickland hopes her team can build something this season.

“This should be the start of something,” Strickland said. “I’ve got great underclassmen coming in that I feel will be very beneficial to the team, and they might be that spark that might put something together.”

Strickland said the team’s recent lack of success has resulted in the Red Devils struggling to find chemistry, but hopes improved results can help bring the team closer together.

“I think that’s one of the big things of not having winning seasons is not having that mesh between those teammates, between those seniors, finding the one thing that makes them all connect.”

Players to watch include Jaliyah Bratcher, Anyla Hunt, Amyah Farrington, Amari McLean and Yanara Sanders.