Orangeburg, S.C. – After more than a month of practice and scrimmages, the Claflin University women's volleyball team will open its 2019 campaign this Saturday, Sept. 13, at Paine College in Augusta, Ga.  First serve is set for 2 p.m. at the HEAL Complex on the Paine College campus. 
 
The Lady Panthers will be looking to bounce back from a 6-17 season from a year ago.
 
First year Interim Head Coach Chymaine Guinyard has set obtainable goals for her 2019 team, who has adopted the theme "Back To Business" to carry them throughout the season.  "With our team being so young – one junior, eight sophomores and nine freshmen -- our expectation for this season is to better ourselves with each outing," Guinyard said. "We will take it one match at a time, perfecting our system of play and developing a stronger volleyball IQ. We will not try to control any other team's game only focus on bettering ourselves and make strides to getting the program back to where it was in previous years when the Lady Panthers were successful."
 
Guinyard will look mainly to her returnees to initially lead the way.  "I expect junior outside hitter Jala Roberts, sophomore middle hitter Sadaiya Edouard along with freshman hitter Briana Reed to lead us offensively and sophomore libero Trinity Fierce and Angel Johnson, sophomore defensive specialist to back us on defensively."
 
While this is the first match of the season for Claflin, Paine will enter the contest at 2-0 having defeated Morris College, 3-0, and Allen University 3-0.
 
Pacing the Lady Lions are Kennedy Curtis and Shavonne Boggs who are averaging 10.5 and nine kills per outing, respectively.
 
Coach Guinyard feels that opening the season with Paine, a team that the Lady Panthers are very familiar with, is a good team by which to measure the team strengths and weaknesses.  "Paine is a good match for us as a season opener as it will give us a chance to see what we areas of the game we really need to focus on before we head into Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAA) play in three weeks. The Lady Lions have some solid attackers and strong defense so this game will also allow us to see how well we handle that style of play."
 
After the Paine game, Claflin will have one week off before returning to the court.  The Lady Panthers will host Frostburg State University and Paine in a Tri-Match, next Saturday, Sept. 21.  Claflin will face Frostburg State at 11 a.m. and Paine at 3 p.m. in the Tri-Match.  Frostburg and Paine will play the middle game at 1 p.m. 
 
All Claflin University home volleyball games are played at Tullis Arena inside the Jonas T. Kennedy Health and Wellness Complex on the Claflin campus.