The high-school volleyball season is under way, and the new coaches at Lakenheath, Alconbury and Menwith Hill are brimming with optimism about this year’s squads.

Lakenheath is coming off a regional championship from last year and a third-place Division I finish at the European championships. The school finished 14-2, but avenged its loss to Ramstein by beating them in a five-match game in the European championships

The Lancers started this season 6-0, but they don’t face their first Division I competition until later this month.

"We have a good combination of athleticism and experience," Coach David Hagander said. "The schools on our radar are the big [Division I] schools in Germany."

Co-captains Lisa McBride and Kirsten Bot lead the team.

"I like that we work together so well. And there’s so much potential," McBride said.

Bot said she is excited about this season because her teammates have come a long way and they are only getting better.

Alconbury Coach Susan Payne arrived this year after seven years as the coach at the now-closed London Central High School and eight years of coaching in Indiana and Illinois. The Division IV school is 2-3 as of last Wednesday, with two of those losses coming against Division I schools.

Alconbury went 5-9 last year but made it to the quarter finals at the European championships with a 2-2 tournament record.

"I have a fantastic group of girls. They work really hard, and they respond to everything I ask them to try," Payne said. "We are young, and we don’t have a lot of experience."

Maddy Zitka, a 5-foot-6-inch sophomore middle-hitter and team co-captains Lauren Wheeler and Natasha Matthew, who are juniors, are among the team’s standouts, Payne said.

"I think the team will do very well. We are getting better," Wheeler said. Wheeler said having a lot of returning players should help.

"I’m excited about the whole team because we got a lot of talent," Matthews said. "Right now it looks like we have some good hitters, but our defense is going to be really, really good."

Menwith Hill coach Travis Potter called this year’s team the strongest he has seen in his few years of watching them before he took over this season. This year, the team started 1-3, but some of those losses have been to schools in higher divisions. Menwith Hill is a Division IV team

"We’ve got two really solid players. There is a lot of maturity — half of the team is seniors," Potter said.

Senior setter and captain Jasmine Clear and senior Susan Shorkey are among the Mustangs’ standouts.

"I would say our strengths are we are really good at serving," Clear said.

Clear said she believes her team is much improved. She credited some of the improvement to doing more drills and conditioning in practice.