The Wildcats are at Swenson Gym this weekend for a pair of matches, the team’s Big Sky Conference home openers, and are fighting several battles as a talented squad tries to reach its potential.

Jeremiah Larsen, in his 12th season at the head of the program, said last week’s first conference road trip helped illuminate the path.

First, the Wildcats are young. WSU rosters only five players who are juniors or older and are returning from last season. Overall, WSU has nine freshmen and sophomores, and just four seniors or fifth-year players.

WSU won its first Big Sky set at Eastern Washington, then lost four straight through a loss to EWU and into the first set at Idaho — then rebounded to beat the Vandals 3-1.

Photo supplied, Weber State Athletics

“For young kids to learn what it’s like to go on the road in conference, it’s a little different,” Larsen said. “Teams prepare better for you, they’re more dialed in on you, there’s some rivalry passion that shows through. Our inexperience bled through this weekend a little more than I anticipated.”

Still, the Wildcats are 8-4 overall thanks to a mix of veteran anchors and young talent. Rose Moore returns for her fourth year in the program, a senior opposite who leads WSU at 3.67 kills per set. Junior twins in Marly Pratt (libero) and Morgan Pratt (setter) are also key returners.

“Rose and Marly, those two are doing a nice job of carrying the load of what it means to be a leader,” Larsen said. “When a senior-laden group leaves, there’s a lot of pressure on those two, and they’re feeling it and learning how to be a leader in their own way and not somebody else’s way.”

But it was difficult not to notice freshman Lexie Carlson, an outside hitter from Bingham High School, after she led the team in kills for three home wins at the Wildcat Invitational. She’s second on the team at 2.85 kills per set.

“Lexie Carlson is a freshman, and that can be a hard place to be, but she came early and since she’s been here, she’s really bought in and wants to fight, wants to compete,” Marly Pratt said. “On and off the court, she’s been an awesome presence in helping this program go compete.

Photo supplied, Weber State Athletics

“All the new kids have come in and bought in and want to work hard, and it’s been like that since Day 1. There’s a lot of selflessness on this team.”

EWU transfer Tennille Gonder and Weber High freshman Sophie Sparrow are also newcomers with bright spots this season, while Ziya Munyer and Maggie Larsen support the returning cast.

That’s a consistent thread for the team, both Pratt and Larsen said, and that will be necessary as the Wildcats also fight the injury battle. Larsen said several players are day-to-day, and he might not know until match day who can go.

“Throw a dart and you hit someone who’s hurt right now,” he said.

It’s frustrating not to be in the gym as much as he wants, but Larsen seems less worried about injuries than you’d expect. That’s because he’s got a group he believes in due to just one factor.

“Their work ethic is really good. I can push them, I can challenge them, I can get after them and they don’t get upset about any of that stuff. They take feedback as feedback and keep working,” Larsen said. “That’s a big deal for us — not just the level you play at but how you go about it. And their work ethic is really, really high, which means we should get better if we could just get healthy, get in the gym and keep going.”

Marly Pratt, who is a nutrition major almost exactly halfway through her five-year college career, said players have recently discussed how to be successful during the marathon, 18-match Big Sky season.

“We’ve talked a bunch about how we can continue to support each other, and how are we going to do our roles the best we can, whatever that looks like, throughout conference,” she said. “How we can best support our teammates and stay together as a unit through the whole season.”

With work ethic in line, Larsen looks to his team to be more consistent. At this point, he says inconsistency is a product of youth and inexperience, but now is the time to push forward.

“We’re just trying to be more consistent every day in how we play the game and the effort we put into it. Who we play and how we get there is inconsequential to us. It’s just, can we be more consistent today than we were yesterday,” the coach said.

“It’s going to be a pretty fun season. We’re going to have some ebbs and flows, some ups and downs, some weird losses, but we’ll compete at a high level. That first set with BYU, we’re competing with them toe to toe, they’re just more experienced than us. So our highs are really high, we’ve just got to hit them more often.”

WSU hosts Portland State at 6 p.m. Thursday and Northern Arizona at 1 p.m. Saturday.