Right before every match begins, Maddie Mitchell starts her routine for Jacobs.
She bounces around to everyone in the lineup and does a personalized dance and handshake to loosen up the vibes and get things rolling.
“I just like to start the game with a little bit of a kick,” Mitchell said. “Let them know that I’m there for everyone.”
The senior outside hitter continues to bring that energy throughout the match as well.
It gave the host Golden Eagles a much-needed boost Tuesday night in a 22-25, 28-26, 25-23 slugfest of a Fox Valley Conference victory over Burlington Central in Algonquin.
Mitchell led Jacobs (1-2, 1-2) with 12 kills, while Layla Merlin had nine and Rachelle Zieba added seven. Rylee Van Stone served four aces. Merlin, Van Stone and Zieba each tallied nine digs.
Ainsley Wilson paced the Rockets (3-1, 2-1) with eight kills and two blocks. Haidyn Schatz came through with seven kills and 14 digs. Peyton Strout added six kills and two blocks.
When Mitchell gets her big swing cranking, it not only provides a point for Jacobs but it gets her whole team pumped up while deflating the opponent.
And when she’s on a roll, those are momentum-changing moments in the match.
“I feel like I really have the support from my teammates and that’s something we rely on,” Mitchell said. “The energy and then the momentum to be able to build off of that.”
Jacobs coach Michael Depa knows the talent that Mitchell possesses. It was just a matter of harnessing that power, which eluded Mitchell at times as a junior.
“She had some struggles last year,” Depa said. “She went through a time where we sat her down and said, ‘Hey, you have to find that control on your swing.’ She had a lot of balls going out.
“We know what she can do with a perfect set. When it’s not perfect, it’s keeping it in and keeping us in the game. She’s grown from that. She’s got a lot more control this year.”
Mitchell said she had to do some soul-searching to overcome that. And it wasn’t always easy.
“I felt like I really struggled mentally for a really long time since starting volleyball,” Mitchell said. “I just had to realize that I had to have confidence and I had to have faith in myself.
“I realized everything behind that is what I can control, no one else around me. No matter the support I have, I have to have confidence.”
The hard work she put in to get to this point helped her in Tuesday’s tight, back-and-forth match.
“It’s been mentally draining,” Mitchell said. “But I said, ‘Take a step back. We are only playing this team on the court one time and you want to leave a good impression before we play them again.’”
The Rockets held a 24-20 lead in the second game, on the verge of closing it out. Jacobs clawed back into it, however, to force a third game. Mitchell had a block and a kill in that run.
In the third game, the Rockets led 23-20 but couldn’t hold on to that edge either, leading to their first loss of the young season.
“I don’t know if we were trying to do too much,” Burlington Central coach Julia Smagacz said. “I think that probably is it. There’s a time where complexity is a bonus and there’s a time when simplicity is what you need.”
Mitchell, meanwhile, thinks Jacobs’ tough early schedule will only make the team stronger. She’s ready to dance her way through what she hopes will be a memorable senior season.
“I felt like this year we all came in open-minded, wanting to be there for the underclassmen and leaving a legacy for them,” she said.
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.