OTTUMWA — Lyndsey Lyon’s first year on the bench at Indian Hills wasn’t the easiest one to watch at times last year.

Lyon, an assistant coach last year, watched the Warriors show promise then show fight when injuries took their toll on a team that battled to a 23-20 record and within a win of a national tournament berth last season.

In her first season as head coach, Lyon has high hopes that won’t happen again.

Not only does this year’s Indian Hills volleyball team bring plenty of depth into the new season, which begins Friday in West Burlington at the Southeastern Tournament, the Warriors also have prepared themselves to withstand the physical rigors of the upcoming season. All in all, Lyon is making sure Indian Hills has their bases covered to make sure the Warriors don’t miss a beat in a season that brings with it renewed expectations.

“I’m pretty excited about everything,” Lyon said as she prepares for her first match Friday against Mineral Area as head coach of the Warriors. “We’ve got a great group of girls coming back from last year. We’ve got a lot of depth. I can always go to our bench if we need that option if I need to.”

“We’ve got height. If we can get our blocking together, we should be a pretty solid wall at the net. Our girls are finishing points in a way that’s encouraging to see this early on. We’re quick defensively. It’s a great group of girls. I’m excited.”

Five returning players highlight the class of seven sophomores that will team up with seven freshmen to make up the 2012 IHCC volleyball squad. Depth and height have been two words used the most to describe this year’s Warrior team with half of the 14 players on the current roster standing six feet or taller.

Arika Johnson, who is the Warriors top returning hitter, talked about the addition of height with five freshmen standing between 6-1 and 6-3 joining the California sophomore.

“Last year, I was the tallest player on the team. This year, there are three players here that are taller then me,” Johnson said. “We have some amazing freshmen coming in this season. We are very well balanced up front.”

Among the new stars that have a chance to make an instant impact up front for the Warriors is Ottumwa native Peyton Crosser. The 6-2 former Bulldog is expected to join returning sophomores Johnson and Emily Eswonia as one of several hard hitters at the net for IHCC while also providing Lyon with a true multi-threat talent.

“Peyton was an all-stater last year and she’s really explosive,” Lyon said. “There’s not a lot of stopping those balls when she explodes at the net.

“She has the potential to play all the way around for us. She’s as fluid as anyone out there. She rallied off as many aces as we had from any our servers.”

Crosser is joined by 6-3 Brazilian recruits Carla Novaes and Christanie Vosconcoles as incoming additions to the front line for Indian Hills this season. The former Bulldog also reunites with OHS teammates Ashley Short, who also joins IHCC as a freshman recruit this fall, and returning sophomore libero Jessi Black who should provide the Warriors with plenty of leadership on the back row.

“Jessi’s scrappy,” Lyon said. “She was strong last year and is even stronger this year.”

Having both height and depth is important, but so will be experience that the Warrior freshman will have to gain quickly as the Warriors face several formidable foes early on this season. This weekend, IHCC will face Division II national tournament qualifier Iowa Central as well as Kirkwood and the Cardinals from Missouri who both were rated at various times last year.

Several Warrior sophomores, however, aren’t worried about their new freshmen teammates fitting in.

“I’m 100 percent confident in every player on the team. No matter what comes along, I’m confident in all of the girls to step up,” Eswonia said. “We’ve already scrimmaged some really good teams in the preseason, teams we didn’t come close to beating last year, and won. I think we have the potential to win all of our games to start out this weekend.”

While several players hope to play key roles on the success of the Indian Hills volleyball team this season, keeping that depth in tact has been the other emphasis of the Warriors’ preseason training. Players have been hard at work throughout the offseason putting themselves through physical rigors to be physically ready to hold up over the next three months of competition.

“This year, we kind of took a different approach with our training. I think that’s going to be a major difference to preventing us from being injured,” Johnson said. “I think we’ve pushed our bodies pretty well.”

“It’s actually hard to see so much talent be on the bench, but all our girls have positive attitudes,” Lyon added. “Everyone is holding each other accountable. This is a fun team to watch and when we can get going, there’s not much that can stop us.”