A little more than a week ago, before Lakeland’s boys volleyball team got its season underway, the Cavaliers’ head coach, Daniel Waller, was anxious to see if his new team could replace a number of important graduated seniors lost from last year’s squad.

Through two matches, while Lakeland as yet to face any of the traditional powers in the Southeastern District, the Cavs have looked strong in consecutive sweeps over King’s Fork last week and on Tuesday against Oscar Smith.

The biggest hole left was the spot that had been filled by All-District setter Russell Carr. In Tuesday’s win over Oscar Smith (25-13, 25-12, 25-15), Mike Estienne was smoothly making the position his own.

Estienne finished with 19 assists and three kills in fulfilling the job that is the rough equivalent of a basketball team’s point guard. Estienne set well for Lakeland’s three main hitters, Scott Asbell, Taylor Bess and Chaise Hodge while adding some hitting, blocking and digging of his own when the Cavs needed it.

Lakeland started the rout right away, getting out to a 13-2 lead in the first set. Asbell, Bess and Hodge had two kills each in the set.

Lakeland’s attack found an even better rhythm as the match moved on. In three straight points early in set two, Estienne set for spikes by Bess, Hodge, then Bess again, as the Cavs took a 6-1 lead. Estienne tallied 16 of his 19 assists in sets two and three.

Set three was more of the same as Lakeland controlled most of the points and committed only a handful of errors. Waller was able to have his whole squad see a fair amount of playing time. Off the bench, Jay Baines, Dondre Jordan and Ben Holland didn’t miss a beat defensively, allowing Asbell and Bess to keep scoring kills.

Asbell finished with 11 kills. Bess and Hodge finished with nine and five kills respectively.

Lakeland (2-0, 2-0) will get a couple of the district’s usual leaders in its next two matches, and both matches come on the road. The Cavaliers go to Great Bridge on Thursday evening, then to Hickory on Monday.