With a team that relies heavily on freshmen and sophomores, leadership from the more experienced players will be crucial.

One player who is looking to fill that role is political science senior Sam Worsham.

Worsham is looking strong on the stat sheet but said she is looking to help out her team in other ways.

“We are still looking for people to step up,” Worsham said. “As a senior, I can do a lot better job of stepping up and leading this team because we do rely on the freshmen a lot.”

The team has experienced ups and downs this season and has a 4-5 record in the Southern States Athletic Conference and an 14-5 overall record. Worsham said that with all the close matches they have lost this season, staying positive and supportive can be difficult at times.

“It’s easiest to be positive when we’re winning, but it’s kind of difficult to be positive when we’re not winning,” Worsham said. “When we’re down, I need to be a better positive leader and be more encouraging.”

While Worsham looks for ways to improve as a leader, she’s also looking for ways to improve her service game.

“I need to concentrate on a more consistent serve,” Worsham said, who leads the team in service errors and is second on the team in total service aces. “Even as a senior, there’re always things I can improve on, and I’m working on those everyday in practice.”

Worsham went on to say that she is still fine-tuning her jump- float serve, a serving style she thinks is difficult for the other team to defend against.

One of the things motivating her to work on her serve and other parts of her game is knowing that this season will be her last.

“It’s not that games didn’t mean anything to me before, but knowing that this is the last season I’ll have competitively, each game means so much more,” Worsham said. “It’s so much more emotional knowing I’ll never be able to get it back.”

The Pack will be looking to improve after going 1-1 in the first week of October, dropping a game to Lee University and defeating Faulkner University the next night. Worsham still believes in the talent of this team but said they will need to work harder to be consistent in late and close-game situations.

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, and I think right now we need to put in a lot more hard work,” Worsham said.

Hasani Grayson can be reached at [email protected]