The volleyball program at Dawson County High School is still in its infancy, but this week will be the first marker to see how much the team has developed.

Coach Tanya Porter compared the progress made thus far to that of a newborn child.

"I compared it to when you are first born and the gross motor skill development that you acquire within the first two years," she said. "In just two years, how quickly you get all of those huge skills but now that we have got the big skills, the next steps are going to be much less obvious."

Porter is pleased with the progress from the time tryouts went on in May and this the first full week of school when the team will face Lakeview Academy on Thursday.

Lakeview is a non-region matchup and the team was 16-23 overall last year.

"It will just be good litmus test for us to try to find out how we are actually going to fare against teams," Porter said.

Consistency will be key for the team, according to Porter.

They have struggled with consistent serving and passing.

"That was what killed us in that scrimmage," Porter said. "We are just not consistent enough on our serve."

During practice the team has worked on serve receive and passing with the use of a serving machine.

"It will allow us to do different spins on it and different speeds so that will allow us to see a different variety of serves coming at them. That has helped I think," she said.

Aside from getting some consistency on fundamentals, putting players into positions has given them an opportunity to really get comfortable.

"Once we were able to decide where we wanted them to play and offered them some consistency to play in those positions that has helped immensely," she said.

"I want them to feel like they can compete and just show me heart, really. That will carry us a long way."

The team will play the single match at 5 p.m. on Aug. 11 at Lakeview Academy in Gainesville.