Overton Lady Mustangs volleyball season preview

Published 5:11 am Wednesday, August 6, 2025

OVERTON — The Overton Lady Mustangs are looking to make this volleyball season one to remember.

At Friday evening’s alumni game which kicked off the Lady Mustangs’ season, senior Mason Fenter, junior Kaylee Stevens and sophomore Sadie Pahlman offered insights into their team’s headspace and readiness with one week of practice to go before their first official games.

“I think this year we are a family and I’m very confident in ourselves holding each other accountable through things,” said Fenter. “And I think that with what have working now, if we keep on having that energy, we’ll be a pretty good team.”

“I think that we’re going to be a lot better than last year. We’ve improved a lot,” said Pahlman. “And I feel like we’re all comfortable with each other.”

“And we’re kind of the same team as last year,” said Stevens.

All three were core players in last year’s team, with Fenter and Stevens being mainstays on offense and Pahlman coming in as a standout freshman setter. They had just three seniors graduate, meaning the 2025 group is mostly experienced returners. Those include sophomore defensive specialist Bryleigh Nelson, junior outside hitter Skyler Colvin, junior Kelsey Vaught and senior Kyuana Brown in the middle and junior DS Makayla Edwards.

“We know the teams now. Like last year, Latexo, we didn’t know them,” added Stevens, referring to the team who led their district and who dealt Overton their only two district losses.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Fenter.

Overton was the 6-2 runner-up team in District 19-2A and they finished 17-18 overall, falling to Elysian Fields in a close bi-district final. The season before that, the Lady Mustangs put the state on notice with a 35-8 season, breaking Overton’s single-season win record, and reaching the regional semi-finals.

Fenter, Stevens and Pahlman would of course love to not only repeat the successes of that 35-8 team but to go even further.

“I want to make my senior year something that everybody remembers,” said Fenter. “So I get to, in the future, tell my kids, yeah, my senior year, we went all the way.”

As far as vulnerabilities, the girls say sometimes they sometimes bring a little too much energy to the court that they could harness better.

“I think it’s hard for some of us to focus whenever we’re all in a good mood. It’s like we’re all bouncing off the walls,” said Fenter.

Pahlman noted that they need to work on keeping their attitude positive the entire game. Stevens agreed, and identified certain back over situations have thrown the team’s discipline off before.

“We can get lost and we don’t go back to our spots,” Stevens explained.

Leading the Lady Mustangs is a new coach, Kolebi Spikes, who’s previously coached at Center and Carlisle.

Overton will head to Garrison on Aug. 8 and Kilgore on Aug. 9 for their first scrimmages. Their first proper game will be at 5 p.m. against San Augustine at home. Preseason tournaments this year will be at Palestine (Aug. 15-17), at West Rusk (Aug. 21-23) and their home tournament Sept. 4-6. The district schedule begins with a home game against Alto on Sept. 23.