Greer volleyball confident that 2025 will be best year in recent memory

Greer volleyball is coming off a 4-18 season in 2024.

You’d never know it.

There’s an unmistakable confidence in this year’s Lady Jackets team. Under first-year coach Melissa Godwin, Greer has a belief that it can surprise many people in a tough region.

“Our biggest goal this year is that we’re going to compete every day,” said Godwin. “We’re going to play our best, no matter what that is. We think our best is pretty darn good. We want to take it game by game, but don’t get us wrong, we want to win the region. We want to win a state championship.”

Greer is led by the team’s two seniors on the roster, Damiah Polk and Miriam Onofre. Both will be key pieces to the team’s success in 2025.

“We’ve been talking about buying into the program and buying into the coaches,” said Polk. “We need to have the mentality of ‘Why not us?’ Every year, we kind of just come into it with the mindset of wanting to be better. Why not us to have the best season? Why not us to win the region? That’s the mentality we need.”

Onofre will be getting her first chance to play for the Lady Jackets this season. She came over from Byrnes after her sophomore year and had to sit out her junior season due to the transfer rule.

Onofre is excited to show Greer what she can do — both as a player and a leader.

“I want to show some of the younger girls on the team how to really have fun with the sport,” said Onofre. “Volleyball’s fun. I feel like a lot of the time, it’s easy to take things too seriously. We play a lot better as a team when we’re having fun.

“I also want these girls to be confident in themselves. I want them to know they can do anything they put their minds to.”

Junior Alexis Cannon and freshman Ivey Tapp will also serve as captains this season for the Lady Jackets.

Cannon says the camaraderie within the team has already been established. The Lady Jackets are a tight-knit group that plays hard for one another. The next step? Putting it all together on the court.

“I feel like the community among the team has already been built well,” said Cannon. “Now we’ve just got to put our skills to work this season. That’s going to come as the year progresses, and I think we’ll be unstoppable.”

Tapp is entering her second year on varsity despite being a freshman. She played on the varsity squad as an eighth-grader last season.

“It was a lot of fun last year, getting to learn from some of the older girls on the team,” said Tapp. “They taught me a lot, even when it was hard being so young.”

Greer will compete in a competitive 4-A Region 2, a region that boasts powerhouse Daniel and last year’s 4-A state champion, Pickens. Those two teams will be the clear-cut favorites to come out of the pack.

But the Lady Jackets might have something to say for themselves.

“We’re not afraid of anyone. We aren’t afraid of a challenge,” said Godwin. “There’s a lot of belief in these girls about what they can accomplish.”

2025 Greer Volleyball Roster

1. Adison Howard (So.)

2. Alexis Cannon (Jr.)

3. Miriam Onofre (Sr.)

4. Ivey Tapp (Fr.)

5. Yaniralys Brunet (Jr.)

6. Damiah Polk (Sr.)

7. Avani Breazeale (Jr.)

8. Sophia Petrillo (Jr.)

10. Peyton Hicks (Jr.)