The SHSU volleyball team opens conference play today when it faces the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in Nacogdoches at 7 p.m.With a record of 6-5, Coach Brenda Gray knows that a trip to the conference tournament begins right now.”It’s a brand new season; everyone starts at zero, flat out starting over,” she said. “It’s always a test to start out with SFA. We do every year, whether it’s here or there. Last year they came here, and we beat them here.”Gray’s ultimate goal is to make it to the conference tournament, and she believes this is the year, and this is the team, to achieve it.”I close my eyes and think, ‘I’ve got a better team than I’ve had in years’,” she said. “I think we’re ready.”Throughout the preseason, Gray has made it known that her freshmen are a large part of the team’s success. Now that the regular season is starting, convincing them of the importance of winning is crucial.”The thing is for my freshmen to understand how this works, because it’s so much different than in high school,” Gray said. “It’s imperative you win. You’ve got to get your own invitation to the dance. Right now, you’re buying your own ticket.”Though “a lot rides on those freshmen,” Gray said she is also looking to both Karlee Butler and Carrie Sartain to continue to lead the team.Sartain has been named All Tournament player in all three preseason tournaments and was chosen as the Southland Conference “offensive player of the week” for her performance at the SHSU Invitational. Butler was also selected as All Tournament for her work that same weekend.Though the LadyKats have enjoyed a fairly successful preseason, winning the first championship title at a tournament in years and taking the nationally-ranked Texas A&M Aggies to four games, a new challenge now faces the team. Senior Liz Dahlstrom did not start the last two matches played due to an injured arm. “I wish Liz Dahlstrom was healthy,” Gray said. “She hasn’t been healthy in two and a half weeks, and it’s been a hard position to fill. She is just a senior and the only one who has been here four years, so she’s the one I know it means the most to. It’s got to, after four years of doing this and wanting it so bad. I know it bothers her to be so injured.”Injury aside, Dahlstrom still sees the potential in the team.”I think this is the best team that I’ve been on since I’ve been here,” she said. “Our team, as a whole, is better than what we have been in the last four years. I feel a lot more confident this year.”Senior Teri Palmer also has ambitious ideas for the season.”I think our freshman have helped us out a lot,” Palmer said. Our season has definitely started better this year than it did last year, so I think we’ll finish a lot better. We’re ranked seventh this year, and we were ranked ninth last year and finished seventh, so we’ll finish a lot higher. I think we’ll definitely make it to the conference tournament.”