The last time the Eastern volleyball team stepped off the court was with the bad taste of a first-round postseason exit at the Ohio Valley Conference tournament in November.

This time around, the Panthers load up for another campaign with a younger roster, and that all begins Friday.

Eastern opens its 2016 season with a three-game tournament in Green Bay, Wis., and will play three games over the course of the weekend.

The Panthers open tournament play Friday morning with a matchup against Stephen F. Austin, followed by a night game against the host of the tournament, Green Bay.

Eastern wraps up the tournament Saturday against South Dakota State and will search through its youth to find success.

As time for the opening serve on Friday closes in, Eastern coach Sam Wolinski said her team is focused on growth and consistency.

“The first tourney is all about us working to enhance our level of play and to grow our level of confidence each and every time we step out onto the court,” Wolinski said.

With that being said, the team’s focus is on themselves rather than the opponent.

“As for this tournament there isn’t a lot of scouting because it is the first tourney for everyone,” Wolinski said. “We will focus in on our play and scout while we are there to see tendencies from our opponents.”

After months of preparing and building that team chemistry, Wolinski said the excitement for the season to begin is definitely there.

“The team is excited to compete this weekend and to play someone else on the other side of the net,” Wolinski said. “We spent the week fine tuning lineups that we will use this weekend so we are comfortable out on the court.”

As the Panthers open up the 2016 season, they also prepare for a season with no seniors.

Eastern will take the court with just three of its starters returning from last season, and the Panthers will take on some different looking teams this weekend.

Stephen F. Austin is the first test for the Panthers, and it may be the toughest of them all.

The Lumberjacks are coming off a 20-14 season that earned them a No. 3 seed in their conference tourney.

But like the Panthers, Stephen F. Austin was sent home packing with a first-round loss.

Senior Justice Walker offers a tough matchup for the Panthers as she led the Lumberjacks with 344 kills last season.

Eastern’s next matchup against Green Bay will depend on its ability to control the phoenix top attackers.

Green Bay is coming off a 17-13 season and is returning a dynamic duo of its own in Lydia DeWeese and Megan Powers.

DeWeese and Powers were a force to be reckoned with up the middle as the pair had over 270 kills each last season.

The Panthers will try to control those two before wrapping up the tournament with a much more experienced team.

South Dakota State won just five games all of last season but has six seniors on this year’s roster.

Heading into the season-opening tournament, Wolinski is stressing one thing to her team.

“One message we are sending every day is consistency in all that we do,” Wolinski said.

Eastern will follow this tournament with its home opener against Butler Tuesday night.

Maher Kawash can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]