Ashley Adams

When Chambersburg girls volleyball coach Ty Frelin watches his team practice and scrimmage this preseason, he likes what he sees.

The Trojans have experience, height, good athletes and young players pushing for playing time, and Frelin believes his team is capable of reaching and doing well in the District 3 playoffs.

He should know — Frelin has seen it all in his career, which is now at 31 years as the head coach and 33 in the program. He is by far the longest-tenured coach at Chambersburg.

“We have 14 kids (on the roster) and they all can play, so the lineup is still evolving,” Frelin said. “We have a good nucleus of five seniors and we made them all captains. They’ve all been playing a long time and will captain in different ways. But we’ll be relying on some of the younger kids, too.”

Chambersburg opens its season on Saturday at the Trinity Tournament at 8:30 a.m.

Ansley Runk

The Trojans’ top returning player, senior Ashley Adams, a 5-foot-10 middle hitter, is dealing with an ankle injury and will miss the start of the season. But Frelin said her replacement, sophomore Marlee Wrights, “is very athletic, and we’ll be OK there.”

The other seniors include outside hitters Ally Davis, Brooke Stevens and Kirsten Johnson, as well as libero/setter Ansley Runk.

The junior class includes Maura Kennedy, Hannah Egolf and Isabella Fidler — all outside or middle hitters — and libero Taylor Myers.

Frelin said, “The junior class has good size; this team in general has probably the most size we’ve had in a few years.”

In addition to Wrights, sophomores Robyn Stepler (setter), Jade Wenger (defense) and Rachael Meyers (hitter), and freshman Raelyn Johnson will be vying for playing time.

“The sophomore class is deep and athletic, and some of them will step in pretty quickly,” Frelin said. “I think 11 of the 27 on our roster (varsity and JV) are sophomores.”

Frelin is looking forward to see how his team stacks up in the always-loaded Mid Penn Commonwealth.

Taylor Myers

“A lot depends on how we weather the storm in the first few weeks without Ashley,” he said, “but we have kids who can play, and we’ll compete. I think our league has gotten more competitive, because a lot of the girls are playing year round. We’ll find out right away, because we play (traditional powers) Carlisle, Cumberland Valley and State College in the first two weeks.”

Chambersburg has changed its schedule a bit, adding non-league teams Wilson, Red Lion, Muhlenberg and Daniel Boone.

“We scheduled a little differently, because we think that may help us with the (District 3) power rankings,” Frelin said.

“We’ve lost in the first round of districts each of the last three years, all in five sets, so it would be nice to be seeded a little higher and get a better draw. We want to make some noise.”

NOTES: The only tournaments the Trojans are playing in are Trinity and Linganore (Md.) … The roster includes four players at 5-10 (Adams, Kennedy, Egolf, Wrights), two at 5-9 (Fidler, Meyers) and two at 5-8 (Stepler, Stevens) … Graduated Trojans playing in college include Bailee Nitterhouse (Bloomsburg), Breanna Byers (PSU Mont Alto) and Maura Wilson (Mount Aloysius).