Lebanon — On Thursday nights, Helen Megson and Anna Mathewson, two returning senior starters and Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II all-stars for the Lyman Memorial High School volleyball team, make the hour-long drive to play in a junior beach volleyball league in Westerly.

"It's having fun playing volleyball," Megson said. "Getting reps. There are skills you can learn that benefit you."

Other than that, it's been a rough year so far for volleyball.

The club season was truncated due to the danger of COVID-19 back in March.

And when the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Association decided to permit conditioning so that high school athletes are able to "resocialize" themselves to competition after a dormant spring, the rules dictated that no sport-specific equipment would be allowed and all conditioning must take place outside.

So the participants in an indoor sport, volleyball, are still not allowed in the building.

Luckily, Lyman coach Amanda Nappi, in her fourth season as the head coach after taking over for Marty Gomez following the 2016 Class S state championship, has a plan for this.

The Bulldogs have been conditioning three times per week for an hour, the maximum time allowed by the CIAC, in hopes of defending their ECC Division II and Class S state championships. On Friday afternoon, Nappi, accompanied by assistant coach Leah Vichas, read a list of timed exercises off a list on her cell phone, planks to pushups and sumo squats among them.

"As far as conditioning goes, we condition every summer," Nappi said. "This has been holding us back a little bit without being able to use the weight room; it's definitely been a challenge. I'm thankful we're out here.

"We keep the players informed of opportunities within the beach and grass (volleyball) community. Some of them are capitalizing. Otherwise they haven't played indoor volleyball since the club season got cut short."

Nappi kept things light, bantering with her players as they ran through their drills. She drew a series of chuckles as she referred to the wind turbine which once sat adjacent to the school's athletic facilities. It has since been removed. Nappi called it the "wind thing." She asked a pair of players which ones had the worst taste in music.

A communications manager at Hartford HealthCare, Nappi is a 2007 graduate of Windham High School, where she is a former Class M champion in the javelin. She went on to compete in that event at the University of North Carolina, where she majored in journalism.

She served as Gomez's assistant volleyball coach at Lyman for four years before she took over the reins in 2017. The Bulldogs have been to the Class S championship in each of Nappi's three seasons, finishing as the runner-up in 2017 before winning the next two. Lyman topped Coventry 3-1 for the 2018 championship and blanked Hale-Ray last season by a 3-1 margin.

"A great mentor and a great program," Nappi said of happening upon the job opening offered to her by Gomez. "... The No. 1 thing for us is to build a culture, build a program."

Nappi, herself, has taken the time to read about volleyball, listen to podcasts and attend online coaching clinics.

"New ways to pass the time in quarantine," Nappi said. "We told the kids, just because you can't play the way you'd like to, doesn't mean you can't find ways to get better. If all we can do is condition, let's put our best into conditioning.

"... Conditioning's not always fun, but the players want to be pushed. They have personal goals, team goals. This work translates to success. For us it's almost mental training and we hope they let us in the weight room in the next phase."

Megson was a first team Class S all-state selection last year along with graduated setter Indigo Hevner, who perhaps leaves the biggest void. Mathewson is the Bulldogs' libero.

"I like the idea of a team sport, having people around you supporting you," Megson said of volleyball. "You all have to work together to earn a point."

"If you lose a point, you have to bring yourself back up before the next point," Mathewson said.

The CIAC hasn't yet announced its plan regarding the fall season.

"One conditioning session at a time," Nappi said. "It's something we emphasize with the players, control the controllables. If we do have a season, are we going to be prepared?"

v.fulkerson@theday.com