After concluding arguably the toughest non-district schedule in the nation, the volleyball team (29-6) is heading into its district season with high hopes of going undefeated in all 10 district games, starting off by hosting Wylie East (11-11) on Tuesday night at 56:30 p.m.

Head coach Jason Nicholson said he is confident about the state of his team as they enter the first round of district.

“I feel like we’re in a good place,” Nicholson said. “We’re healthy. We’ve escaped injury throughout the long and grueling preseason, and we’re going to start thinking about the playoffs and doing some damage once we get there.”

Senior libero Michelle Foster covered the expectations the team has set for itself heading into Tuesday night.

“We expect to come out of district with zero losses and no dropped sets,” Foster said. “Our main focus is to just keep playing our game and not play down to our opponents level. As long as we are playing consistent and good volleyball, we should come out as district champs.”

Nicholson also weighed the pros and cons of the new district, including the absence of former rival Highland Park.

“Even though we only had [Highland Park] for two years, it was an immediate rivalry,” Nicholson said. “For us, it’s good to have that type of connection with a team because it makes district play exciting, so you miss that piece. But you also don’t have to worry about the emotion and all the different things that come into play when you play a team like that. You just focus on the volleyball and getting the job done.”

The Leopards swept Martin (22-8) last Friday night, ending their strenuous non-district regular season on a high note. With a dip in the competition level during the district season, Nicholson emphasized the importance of a rigorous non-district schedule.

“North Texas is loaded with high-level volleyball,” Nicholson said. “There are a lot of good teams that come out of this area with a lot of good players. We schedule a tough schedule because we know that the [non-district regular season] is the meat of our season. It is where we need to try and improve, get stronger and kind of figure ourselves out a little bit.”