CHOCOWINITY — The new-look Southside volleyball team is working out the kinks and prepping for another shot at a Coastal Plains Conference championship, this time with a collection of capable athletes and youthful exuberance.

Replacing head coach Rosalyn Grimes’ trifecta of captains — standout outside hitter Katilyn Laughinghouse, Valarie Hodges and Kyajia Mourning — are two freshmen sisters, Danielle and Symone Ruffin. Both come equipped with a mental understanding of the game and a foundational, travel-ball skillset that should provide an instant upgrade to the Seahawks rotation.

“In terms of overall ability, these girls are athletes this year,” Grimes said. “They know the game of volleyball, it’s not new to them. Last year we had an older team, but basically one star athlete, Katy Laughinghouse.”

Fronting this group of new faces is Angelica Tisdale, a returning starter and one of three seniors on the team. An outside hitter and three-sport athlete, Grimes says Tisdale will have to assume a different role this season, becoming more of a leader than a follower.

And coming off a 5-12 record and fifth-place finish in the conference, Southside will need to fuse senior leadership with skillful freshmen if the team is to have any chance at climbing up the standings.

Grimes says Tisdale and the Ruffin sisters will be the catalysts behind the Seahawks rotation in 2014.

“This year, (Tisdale) has matured a lot, personally and in her game,” Grimes said. “Katy is gone, but now I have Symone and Danielle to work with Angelica. We have three core players, then the other girls can come in, help out and help the team do what it needs to do.”

A supporting cast of seniors — libero Sierra Bonner and setter Tiana Corbett — along with sophomore Andrea Waters and juniors Dajea Reddick and Tatyanna Rogers, will make up the rest of an intentionally short-staffed varsity lineup.

Even with a large junior varsity roster, an eight-women varsity team keeps everyone fresh and opens the door for JV players to join.

Grimes says she’ll rotate in three JV players each game. She will select them based on their effort at practice and performance games.

“Every game is going to be probably somebody different — whatever JV players had the best game that particular day will be the ones I move up,” Grimes said. “That’s something I picked up the last year. I wanted the JV team to have a feel for varsity before they were actually moved up. All of them are not ready to go to directly to varsity because varsity and JV are totally different animals.”

With 20 players in the program, consisting of nine freshmen, youth is at an all-time high, but Southside believes with the loss of a few key playmakers in the Coastal Plains, a conference championship is a reasonable and reachable objective.

“Because last year we beat the conference championship, which was Northside,” Grimes said. “We’re a better team than we were last year. The bar is high. I expect nothing less than a conference championship. In fact, we don’t talk about conference champs too much, we talk about state championships.”

Southside opens its 2014 campaign on the road at South Creek on Tuesday.