Panama volleyball coach Tammy Hosier talks to her team during Tuesday’s practice. P-J photo by Cody Crandall

In 2016, Panama’s volleyball team put together a sensational season on the hardwood.

How dominant were the Lady Panthers last fall?

Well, Panama made its way through its non-league and Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association league schedule, the Section VI playoffs and the Far West Regional without a single loss.

With an abundance of support from the community, the Lady Panthers then made their way into the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships at the Glens Falls Civic Center, took down Section II’s Argyle in a thrilling five-set match in the Class D final and were rightfully crowned state champions.

Heading into a new season in 2017, the fact that her team was recognized as the best Class D team in New York state still hasn’t completely set in for Panama head coach Tammy Hosier.

“It’s just surreal,” Hosier explained prior to leading her team through practice Tuesday afternoon. “Just the whole thing, it’s still overwhelming to realize that we are state champions. As far as the team, I just think that we’ve had such great teams up through the years, we’ve just never gone over the hump. Just to be able to do that, and for the community, and we had so many people supporting us, it was just great.”

Seven players from last year’s state championship team will return this fall: Madalyn Bowen, Quinn Payne, Elle Angeletti, Natalie Angeletti, Maci Johnson, Alexys Marsh and Gillian Figueroa will all return with another year of experience and an abundance of big, intense matches under their belts.

After her stellar 2016, Bowen was honored by the New York Volleyball Coaches Association as a First-Team All-State selection in Class D after she compiled a team-leading 343 kills to go along with 33 aces, 239 digs and 28 assists. She was named the Class D tournament’s Most Valuable Player at the NYSPHSAA Championships and was also named the CCAA South Division MVP.

Payne was chosen as a Second-Team All-State selection following a campaign in which she collected 643 assists, including 51 assists in the Panthers’ win over Argyle in the state final. She was selected to the Class D all-tournament team at the NYSPHSAA Championships and was a CCAA South Division First-Team selection.

Elle Angeletti (43 aces), Natalie Angeletti (217 kills, 50 aces, 117 digs), Johnson (46 aces, 222 digs), Marsh (97 kills, 50 total blocks) and Figueroa (53 kills, 51 total blocks) were all certainly instrumental as well when it came to Panama’s success in 2016.

“It’s big having those seven come back,” Hosier said. “We did summer league, we’ve gone to a couple camps working to improve. They know that we’ve got to keep working hard to be able to compete (at a high level).”

One challenge the Lady Panthers might face this season is replacing Tara Sweeney, who was the lone senior on the 2016 team.

Along with Bowen, Sweeney was a First-Team All-State selection. She racked up 111 kills, including the decisive kill in Panama’s state championship victory. In addition, she compiled 48 aces, 11 total blocks and 128 digs. She was selected to the Class D all-tournament team at the NYSPHSAA Championships and was a CCAA South Division Second-Team selection.

“She’s going to be extremely tough to replace,” Hosier emphasized. “I mean, we really don’t have anybody to replace her. We’re going to have to probably use two people to replace her. … She just was the whole package. A great player, a great kid. She’s an all-around athlete, just a super teammate, (she) kept things fun. And she just added so much. Like I said last year, she was the unsung hero.”

Hosier was also quick to point out that another key ingredient to her team’s recent success has been the team chemistry.

“Without that team and that family atmosphere, we wouldn’t have won,” Hosier explained. “… They believed it, they owned it and those few times where we weren’t quite on the same page, they realized real quick and came back and made it right. That’s where the success was is being a team.”

With a strong contingent of players back and that team-first attitude and family atmosphere, the Lady Panthers may very well be extremely tough to deal with again this season.

“We have to go game by game,” Hosier stated. “We have to stay focused, we have to continue to work hard and step up our game because everyone is going to be playing their best game against us. We have to be ready to go. … I think we just need to keep ourselves focused.”