Taking over a varsity program with nine seniors on the roster might dissuade some coaches from taking the job, but Morton Ranch’s new volleyball coach Gabriela Toussant only saw it as an advantage.

“They’re a little bit more knowledgeable than other teams,” said Toussant, previously an assistant coach with the program. “Since it is a small roster, they’re not competing for time. They’re all going to play at some point. I had a lot of them when they were on JV, so they already knew how I was, and they knew what my goals were and what I was like as a person.”

The Mavericks finished 13-22 in 2018, but a disappointing 0-12 in district play. So far, they are 6-13 overall, but have won six of their last 12 games.

“This year, they made a couple of goals and they promised me a (district) win, so I’ve tapped into their inner desire,” Toussant said, laughing. “Compared to the other Katy schools, we’re a little smaller in height, so we have to play smarter. Every lineup, I adjusted it to have different hitters on the front row and hitters on the back row, so it’s an intellectual game of change.”

Morton Ranch lacks the tall, traditional outside hitters and middle blockers, so Toussant said switching formations and varying attack locations would factor into the team’s success this year. She noted that because of the roster’s age and experience — nine seniors and only one sophomore — she was comfortable playing everyone at every position.

“Every rotation is different, every lineup is different, and the girls have bought into the diversity,” Toussant said. “Even if you don’t play the ball well, at least know where to go, so your teammates know where you should be, and they trust you to be there. The girls have a lot of trust in each other, and that’s where the fight comes in.”

The fight was on display Tuesday night, in a non-district game with Lamar. The Mavericks lost in five sets (22-25, 25-15, 18-25, 25-21, 13-15), but continually rallied back from deficits.

Senior Katrina Sanchez, moving from libero to an all-around player this year, finished with six kills and three aces, while captain and senior Jharyn Craig was a force attacking at the net with eight kills.

The team’s other captain — senior Samantha Copeland — had a strong passing game, which included five kills from sets deep into court positions vacated by Lamar defenders. She returns to the court after missing all of her junior year because of a knee injury.

“Being part of this atmosphere, everyone is encouraging me, and it feels really good … As a team, we need to keep our attitude up,” Copeland said. “If we miss a couple points, we really get down on ourselves, and it’s points we can come back from.”

Toussant said Copeland has a calm demeanor and a high volleyball IQ. The coach said she is counting on Craig to be the bridge from the roster to the coaching staff. She praised Sanchez’s flexibility.

Craig was often the focal point of the offensive attack, but as a result, she also drew the main blocking attention from Lamar’s six-foot middle hitter Amanda Planck. This presented openings for Damiana Ferrera and Lily Marcum, though, who finished with 13 and 12 kills, respectively.

“As a team, I think we need to work on our communication a bit more, and telling each other where we’re going to hit,” Craig said. “We’ve implemented more systematic hitting, more systematic ball placement, things like that, and I think that’s helped a lot.”

Sanchez noted that while the team’s roster was almost entirely seniors, they hadn’t necessarily played as a unit much. She said that while the communication is improving, it isn’t perfect yet.

Toussant said that as the team got more used to playing with another, and in trusting each other’s positioning, she expected its execution to improve.

“We’re trying to clean up the technical stuff and the missed serves,” Toussant said. “We’re just trying to build up to that and to put on a show, and we hope that builds into district play, and that we’re not going to be that team that falls by the wayside.”