GREENVILLE — Eight seniors, a strong work ethic and encouraging preseason performances have Greenville Lady Wave varsity volleyball coach Michelle Hardesty excited about what her team can accomplish in 2026.
Greenville, coming off a 10-8 Miami Valley League record and 12-11 overall mark in 2025, recently hosted three schools for a preseason varsity scrimmage as the Lady Wave continued preparations for the regular season.
Entering their ninth season at Greenville, Michelle and Jim Hardesty are pleased with the commitment they have seen throughout the summer, and that continues into the preseason.
“I’m super excited about the upcoming season,” Hardesty said. “These girls have been working hard all summer. They’ve been pretty committed to showing up to things outside the season, so it shows that they’ve got good commitment and they want to win. They want to have a good season.”
At the center of Greenville’s expectations is a senior class eight players strong.
“We have eight seniors on the team,” Hardesty said. “They’ve been good leaders for the whole program.”
Having eight seniors and only six players on the court at a time presents Hardesty with a challenge, but one she welcomes.
“These girls have played, and we’ve known that for four years,” she said. “Regardless of what we had them do over the last four years, they stayed committed to the sport. They love it. They’re here to play.”
Hardesty said substitutions will allow Greenville to utilize its experienced senior group while still providing opportunities for younger players.
“We can’t play all eight of them at once,” she said. “We do get a good round of them in with having substitutions, and we’re still getting some of the other girls experience.”
The Lady Wave also have several sophomores Hardesty believes can contribute at both the junior varsity and varsity levels.
“We have some really strong sophomores that are going to be playing JV and varsity,” Hardesty said. “We’re getting them seasoned, ready to go.”
That development is important because Greenville eventually will have to replace its large senior class.
Hardesty said the younger players regularly compete against the varsity during practices and have shown they can hold their own.
“JV scrimmages pretty regularly at the end of a practice, and they’re holding their own,” she said. “They’re going to be exciting to watch too. I feel like we’re really getting the program ready to continue beyond these seniors.”
Greenville has given Hardesty reasons for optimism during a preseason schedule that has included quality competition.
The Lady Wave finished third during competition at Cedar Point and have performed well in their other scrimmages.
“We were pretty competitive up at Cedar Point,” Hardesty said. “We did really well. We’ve done really well with all of our scrimmages.”
Assistant varsity coach Jim Hardesty also has been encouraged by what he has seen.
“We’re looking forward to a good year,” he said. “We’ve got eight seniors, so we should have a lot of leadership.”
Greenville also traveled to St. Marys for preseason competition against Fort Recovery, St. Marys, Lehman Catholic and Jackson Center.
“We fared really well against all of them,” Jim Hardesty said. “I think we got beat 25-23 against Fort Recovery, so that’s going to be one of the top teams in the MAC. If we can play at that level all the time, we’re going to be really good.”
Michelle Hardesty said determining how Greenville compares with the rest of the MVL is more difficult because the Lady Wave do not see many conference opponents during preseason competition.
“We don’t see a lot of our MVL schools during preseason, so it’s hard to say,” she said. “We don’t know how we’re going to match up, but I’m really impressed with the girls and their work ethic and hearing what they want to get out of the season.”
One of Greenville’s biggest challenges has been replacing key players who graduated over the past two seasons, particularly on defense.
“Over the last two years, we lost some really good defensive players,” Hardesty said. “When you’re losing your defensive people, it’s really tough to recover from that.”
The Lady Wave also had to replace Kindyl Peltz, a four-year setter who is now playing at Capital University.
“She’s been that setter leader on the court for four years,” Hardesty said. “But our current group, they’ve learned a lot from those behind them, so they’re doing a pretty good job.”
Jim Hardesty expects Greenville’s varsity rotation to be approximately 10 players deep this season and said competition for playing time will extend into the junior varsity program because of the large senior class.
“There’s going to be a couple juniors playing at the JV level just to get playing time, keep them in shape and get them ready to be able to play next year,” he said. “With so many seniors, it’s going to be tough to get time up here.”
Greenville also plans to field a second junior varsity team because of the number of freshmen in the program.
The Lady Wave enter the season with another important advantage — a healthy roster.
“As of right now, we’re all healthy, no lingering issues or anything,” Jim Hardesty said. “So that’s a start from the last three years.”
Injuries became especially troublesome late last season, resulting in the loss of key playing time at the middle and outside positions.
This season, Jim Hardesty believes several players will have to take on significant roles for Greenville to reach its potential.
“Megan (Loudy) is going to be very dynamic as a setter and hitter this year again,” he said. “Avery (Shipp) is going to have to control the middle, and then our outsides are really going to have to do a better job of controlling the ball, keeping the ball in play.”
Greenville will be tested early, with Tipp City and Vandalia Butler among the opponents on the schedule before the Lady Wave compete in the Darke County tournament.
For Michelle Hardesty, however, the combination of eight seniors, promising younger players and a summer of hard work has Greenville entering the season with plenty of reason for optimism.
“I’m really impressed with the girls and their work ethic,” she said. “They want to win. They want to have a good season.”
