Jessie McCoy wasn’t satisfied with her performance.
“Tonight wasn’t my best game,” she said.
The South Puget Sound Community College sophomore volleyball setter gave this evaluation after a night where the Clippers defeated Tacoma Community College in four sets on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and she piled up 40 assists for the fourth time this season.
The only thing slowing her down was a sinus infection, but otherwise, an outsider might say that’s a pretty good day. As of Oct. 7, she ranks third in the entire NWAC in total assists.
That high standard has been developed since McCoy started playing volleyball 10 years ago as a fourth grader. She was a three-sport athlete at Napavine High School in volleyball, basketball, and track and field, learning from coaches with a shared hunger for excellence.
Now, McCoy, a 2025 Napavine graduate, is in her second season with the SPSCC volleyball team and first as the Clippers’ full-time setter. As a freshman last fall, she spent most of her time as a defensive specialist but filled in at her signature setter spot in two games at the end of the season.
McCoy entered her sophomore season with the knowledge that she would take over as the everyday setter, and that was a significant boost to her confidence after a tough start to her collegiate career.
“Obviously, the pace of the game is a lot different than it is in high school. In my first year, I struggled with confidence,” she said. “I played a different position. It was a change for me. I feel like I’ve grown as a person in these last two years, and I’m thankful for my coach who has pushed me to become a better player.”
Last season, McCoy was the understudy to standout setter Matagi Maugaotega, who is now at Saint Martin’s. Maugaotega helped McCoy understand the timing and flow of her position, and McCoy took that to the next level with SPSCC head coach Emme Price this summer.
Price said McCoy’s game has elevated because of the time that she’s put into perfecting her craft, as well as her willingness to take a leadership role as one of two returners from last season. Because of those traits, McCoy was voted a team captain.
“She’s been in the gym. She’s understood that she needs to take a leadership role, and she continues to demonstrate it every day in getting the team together,” Price said. “When we hit the lows of the season, she comes in asking what needs to improve. She takes leadership on the court, which is something setters need to do, and she’s taken to it very well.”
McCoy has developed into a 5-1 rotational setter, allowing her to spread the ball around to the outside, the right side and to the middle. She has also had to learn tempo passing, a faster and lower type of set that was lethal for SPSCC in its win against Tacoma CC. Mary Bobryk was the beneficiary of many of those passes.
That addition to her game has allowed her to play more instinctively and grow her understanding of the game.
“You have to know who you’re going to set to, know what’s open, and know what’s going on on the other side of the court,” McCoy said. “You don’t have as much time to think about it or see who’s open at that point in time. You have to understand who’s on a hot streak.”
When McCoy arrived at SPSCC last fall, one of the biggest adjustments was the free time to focus solely on one sport. She had grown so accustomed to volleyball from August to November, basketball from November to March, and track from March through May.
“It definitely gets a little boring. You definitely miss being busy all the time and having constant friends. You have to get out of your comfort zone. I never really worked out on my own before,” she said.
On the basketball court, McCoy was a key piece in Napavine’s 2024 2B state championship run, and she helped the Tigers finish fifth in 2023 and third in 2025. Anyone that knows Napavine girls basketball coach Shane Schutz knows that there’s a high standard that must be maintained, and McCoy credited that championship mindset for how she carries herself today.
“That really shaped me as a person. Our coach in high school was very stern,” she said. “Our practices were definitely hard, so I feel like that was a big growth in my life playing basketball.”
McCoy’s competitive athletic journey will come to a close after this volleyball season, as she will transfer to Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, to pursue a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She served as a teaching assistant with Laura Stanley while in high school, and she has substituted for paraeducators in Rochester while in college.
McCoy is at peace with the looming conclusion to her volleyball and athletic journey. With the Clippers still in the thick of a postseason chase, she wants to finish the last couple of weeks of her career with a bang.
“Volleyball is a very positive sport. It brings me joy,” McCoy said. “I want us to have 100% effort all the time. We struggle with that. We are kind of a roller coaster. We go up and down. I would love to see a straight line, only up.”
