Madison volleyball competing better this season

The volleyball team at Madison Academic has a lot going on for it right now.

Seven seniors with a good amount of experience are leading the Lady Mustangs this season, and they’re having their best season in a while with an 11-4 overall record and 7-2 in district play.

Their only two losses in district play are to Huntingdon, who currently leads the district.

“The first time we played them, they beat us in straight sets,” said head coach Kelli Hytinen. “[On Monday] we went to their place and played them and pushed them to five sets before they barely beat us.

“We weren’t happy with the loss, but we came away from that game feeling like we can play with them if we meet them again in the postseason.”

The blocking tandem of Kennedy Bunting and Jaylee Donald leads the Lady Mustangs offensively. Bunting, who hadn’t played volleyball in a couple years, is leading the team with 73 kills. Donald has 57.

“We usually try to have the rotation where we have one of them up front and the other in the back,” Hytinen said. “Jaylee is our team captain and does a great job leading on the court no matter where she is lined up.”

Outside hitter Riley Harris is a weapon for the team as she can bring plenty of force behind her hits when she’s set up the right way.

“Her hits are hard to stop, and her serves are too,” said Hytenin about Harris. “Her serves come over the net in a way that they almost roll off multiple players before they can get a good handle on it.”

Harris’ stat line includes 34 kills, 34 aces and 32 digs going into this week.

Sisters Debra and Ella Stewart are solid players for the Lady Mustangs on the back line. Debra entered this week with 67 digs and 24 aces, while Ella had 53 digs and 17 aces as a sophomore.

Hytenin said both of them do a good job of getting under the ball when it’s coming over the net and getting it to a teammate to set up for a kill if they don’t get it themselves.

Then the offense is structured around setter Kiki Hakim, who has 160 assists, 60 digs, 53 aces and 39 kills.

“Everyone is putting in the work and trying to improve individually to get the team better,” Hytenin said.

One thing that helps them is the availability of Hudl for the team.

Hudl is a brand that’s been around in football for more than a year which is a stat tracker and video tracker for athletes.

Hytenin, who served as volleyball coach for the first time last year, wanted to ensure the Lady Mustangs had their own account this season.

“It’s really helpful because our girls get their stats and highlights and game film sent to them,” Hytenin said. “So they have access to see how they’re playing, how they’re looking and how they can fix the parts of their game that need fixing or simple tweaking.

“We watch it some as a team, but a lot of them are spending time after each game once everything is uploaded watching it themselves to get an idea of how can improve. Then they work on what needs improvement.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news