Haskell volleyball captains, from left, Holly Tanner, Samantha Logg and Amber Benallie will lead Haskell this season. Logg and Benallie are sophomores, and Tanner is a freshman.

Melissa Peterson is finishing her degree in community health education at Haskell Indian Nations University this fall. At age 22, she’s also the Indians’ volleyball coach.

Peterson has been around volleyball since an early age and played at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“I come from a Division I level, so I want to get these girls to play at the Division I level,” Peterson said. “I want them to work their hardest, because when I played, I beat other people that were taller and stronger because I played harder than they did. And I hope they can take that from this season.”

Peterson, however, isn’t totally new to coaching. She has led a club team and a high school team. Peterson has been on the job for about two weeks and said the team had progressed nicely.

“The days that we’ve had together, we’re at a good start,” Peterson said. “But it will still take awhile before we start playing at the potential that they can play at.”

This year’s squad is made up mostly of freshman, with no seniors and only six combined sophomores and juniors. But Peterson said she wasn’t concerned about the team’s lack of experience.

“I’ve never looked at it that way,” she said. “I just look at the girls that we have and the leaders that we do have and more of what they can do on the court.”

Among the three captains for this year’s squad are two sophomores: setter Samantha Logg and outside hitter Amber Benallie. The other is 5-foot-11 freshman middle blocker Holly Tanner.

“She does a very good job at the net blocking and will continue to be a great leader for us because she’s a mature athlete,” Peterson said of Tanner. And on the outside, the Indians will rely on Benallie to put points on the board.

“She’s our ‘go-to’ hitter,” Peterson said. “She’s going to be one of the most effective and should be one of the strongest players on our team.”

Logg said the players already had welcomed Peterson’s coaching style.

“It’s different, but it’s good,” Logg said. “I think we’re going to go a long ways with it, with her knowledge and her experience.”

Peterson had been receiving some training and coaching tips from John Kessel of Team USA. He was conducting a summer instructional camp at Haskell.

Kessel said the young coach already had impressed him.

“As coaches, there’s coaches who teach through the game and coaches that teach through technique,” Kessel said. “Those who teach through technique can look pretty good in drills, but can’t play the game. She falls on the side of teaching the game, and that’s where we’re coming from at the Olympic level. It’s all about the game, and she gets that.”

Kessel said he was impressed with the talent and work ethic of Peterson’s team.

“This is a really young team, but I’m sure it’s probably the best skilled team they’ve had for a while,” he said. “You can tell that as incoming freshman they can play volleyball. They’re not learning volleyball, they already know volleyball.”

Haskell will open its season Tuesday night at home against Mid-America Nazarene.