MIDWAY, Ky. - With a lot of moving pieces entering the 2025 season, Midway women's volleyball coach Kennedy Mang admits she doesn't yet know how all of them will fit on the court.

"Every time I think about (what the starting lineup will be) I have no idea," said Mang, the third-year coach whose Eagles open regular season play this weekend. "It could just be different pieces."

The uncertainty is understandable. At the conclusion of the 2024 season, Midway lost its top three hitters (Aubry Koester, Emily Slaughter and Meghan Adams) and its assist leader (Marinna Liedle) to graduation.

And with so many spots available, competition has been fierce in early season practices, as several veterans and newcomers are fighting to get into the lineup.

"Everybody (is) out there working hard and just wanting to start hard pushing (for playing time)," senior setter Lindsey Whitehouse said. "We obviously lost a lot of our team but I think it's going to push everybody to work harder to want that spot."

Two players likely to see major time on the outside are junior Nyla Gaines and sophomore Alyssa Medeiros. Gaines had 152 kills and led all Midway hitters with a .232 hitting percentage in 2024, while Medeiros added 88 kills.

At the setter position, junior Paige Miles and Whitehouse return after recording 222 and 187 assists respectively a season ago.

Defensively, sophomore libero Blair Riney looks to improve on a freshman season in which she led the Eagles with 385 digs and made the River States Conference All-Third Team. Riney and Gaines were both named Players to Watch by the RSC for the coming season.

The upperclass group will be joined by 11 freshmen, many of whom are expected to be major parts of the rotation.

The hope is that new and returning pieces will find a strong rhythm by year's end, as the Eagles, who earned the eighth and final spot in last season's conference tournament, try to improve on their ninth-place ranking in the RSC Preseason Coaches' Poll. 

"Looking at how last year went for us…I think (our ranking) was fair," said junior middle blocker and team captain Kayedon Mattingly. "But I think it definitely gives us something to fight for. It pushes us to be better and to want more for this year."

The Eagles begin regular season play Saturday with a pair of matches in Batavia, Ohio. They face Cincinnati-Clermont at noon and Franklin College (Ind.) at 2 p.m.