‘A ball and a wall’: How Maize South volleyball star Camdyn Stucky learned art of setting
It all began with a ball and a wall for Camdyn Stucky.
Long before she became a standout setter for Maize South with a Division I scholarship to play volleyball at Tennessee, Stucky was just a kid who used to pass her free time by peppering a ball against the same wall in her room.
The constant thud would inevitably lead to her parents yelling at her to stop, then yelling some more when they saw the new set of scuff marks on the wall.
“I don’t think they mind too much now,” Stucky said with a laugh. “But honestly, I really do think that’s part of the reason why I’ve gotten to where I am now.”
There’s an art to setting and Stucky’s progression has quickly progressed to a level rarely seen in the Wichita area.
At 6-foot-3 and as a left-hander, Stucky has inherent advantages to her game. But she also possesses deft touch and impeccable feel for who to set and when to attack on her own, all requirements to keep a high-level offense humming.
She’s racked up 836 assists this season, which averages to 10.3 per set, while ranking third on the team in kills (143) with a .448 hitting percentage and second on the team in digs (184).
“Being 6-3 and a lefty, Camdyn is just this perfect storm of ability and talent and she mixes that with an incredible work ethic,” Maize South coach Alexis Head said. “Because of how long her reach is, she can go up for balls that would be overpasses for other setters and she turns them into perfect passes because she can elevate and push the ball wherever she wants to. I don’t know if I’ll ever coach another setter like her again.”
Stucky is the maestro behind one of the most dangerous offenses in Kansas this season, as Maize South challenged itself with perhaps its most challenging schedule to date and emerged with a 35-3 record and the No. 2 seed in Friday’s Class 5A state volleyball tournament in Salina.
The Mavericks are stocked with premier hitting talent, as junior Jillian Gregory and senior Gracie Morrow (Wichita State) are both Division I-caliber hitters. The duo combines for more than eight kills per set with each hitting well over .300 this season to lead an attack that also features Carly Koster, Cece Young and Ashley Singhateh.
“They are such phenomenal players and I’ve been playing club with them since I was 10,” Stucky said. “It’s been amazing to watch them grow as players and as people. Having both of them on my side leaves my options open. I know they are always ready to come in clutch when we need them to score and they’re a huge reason why we’ve had so much success this year.”
But great teams depend the most on their setters, who are uniquely positioned to be the only players on the court to touch the ball on every point.
Stucky’s days as a pitcher in softball helped prepare her to handle that pressure, she says.
“I feel like pitching and setting are similar because you are in control of the game,” Stucky said. “And I’ve definitely gone through my ups and downs with that kind of pressure on me. But I think you have to feel that pressure to be able to overcome it. I’ve dealt with not rising to the occasion before. I have a great support system around me and I know they’re always there for me when I need them.”
Stucky comes from a family that is no stranger to success in athletics. Her mother, Casey, was a star volleyball and basketball player at Maize in high school, while her father, Cody, is currently Maize South’s softball coach and has won at several past stops. Meanwhile, her older sister, Caiya, is also a setter and plays for Fort Hays State.
Cody Stucky says Camdyn takes after her mother when it comes to the volleyball court.
“She’s got this fierceness about her,” Cody Stucky said. “She’s never been a real big rah-rah girl, but she definitely leaves everything out there on the court. She doesn’t like to lose and you can see when she kicks it into the next gear. There’s a competitive fire in her where she does not want to lose and if she does, it will bother her.”
Maize South is set to make its sixth straight state appearance, but the Mavericks have never placed better than fourth at state. A tall challenge awaits them in Salina, as the Mavericks will face St. Thomas Aquinas, the defending state champions, St. James Academy and Lansing in pool play on Friday.
The state tournament will be the final memory in high school sports for Stucky, who is set to graduate at semester and enroll at Tennessee to be ready for the spring season.
She becomes emotional when she thinks about it from that frame of view, so instead, she trusts her training, all of those hours she spent with a ball and a wall, and believes Maize South is poised to do something it has never done this weekend.
“Everything is happening super fast, so I just try to focus on making a good run at state because I feel like that’s the perfect way to go out,” Stucky said. “I love this team and these girls so much. On all of the teams I’ve ever been on, this is probably the best team environment. It makes me sad I won’t ever get to play with this group of girls again, but we’re focused on state and making this last run count.”’
This story was originally published October 26, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
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