Mexico volleyball doesn’t want to shoot for the middle of the standings one day.

It wants more.

Before the Lady Bulldogs can successfully rebuild the program, they have another season on the horizon with knowledge they pulled from high-level sources. Mexico ran a summer camp this year that was led by coaches from the Gold Medal Squared program – responsible for training American Olympic volleyball athletes.

Head coach Mendie Tutt, who is in her second season as head coach, knows Mexico hasn’t had much success in the past for volleyball but is confident that will change. She said the team is implementing strategies they learned from the camp that she hopes will lead to improvement from the 4-19 season a year ago.

“(Gold Medal Squared) does a lot of statistics,” Tutt said. “The numbers show 80-90 percent of the balls go to the middle. To put us in a better defensive spot, that’s where we’re going.”

Mexico will continue to fine-tune a middle-middle defense that is focused on players covering the middle region of the court.

“For the offensive system, if we play in the middle of the court, then we have less tendencies to put the ball over or have the ball too tight,” Tutt said. “We can make better adjustments that are not putting our players in precarious situations.”

From that summer camp, Tutt said she also learned that her players were stronger servers and think that could be an area of strength this season. No matter who is serving, she said the Lady Bulldogs can make teams uncomfortable.

Mexico wants to implement jump-float serving, which accounts for finesse as well as power, Tutt said.

“Serving is our game strength by far,” Tutt said. “That is one of the most difficult serves to pick up as a defensive player. The server hits the ball in the middle with a little hop-step, and the ball will float. When I say float, it will move side to side and just float in the air so it makes it makes it very difficult for a defender to pass it properly because it’s got a little wiggle to it.”

A couple returning players that will attempt these strategies this year are senior outside hitter and reigning all-North Central Missouri Conference player Jessica Stephens and senior setter Ally Wilson. Tutt said the pair are part of a six-senior core that establish good rapport early within the team.

Freshman middle hitter JacLynn Cline is a key newcomer this season as Tutt continues to figure out starting lineup and rotation works best for Mexico.

Regardless, Tutt said the team has pretty good chemistry already and are comfortable around each other. She said the Lady Bulldogs will need that when they are motivated to get “payback” against conference foes such as Fulton, Hannibal and Kirksville this season.

Mexico has lost the previous three meetings with Fulton, who it was eliminated by in the district tournament last year and will begin the season at home with Aug. 29. Reigning conference champion Hannibal has taken every set with Mexico since a match in 2013 and will travel to Gary Filbert Court on Sept. 15. The Lady Bulldogs have lost three straight meetings with Kirksville and will face the Lady Tigers at home on Sept. 1.

That first loss against Kirksville was for the district title back in 2020, when Mexico finished 9-14, so Tutt would love to see her team back in that position again.

“We want to get back in the 1-2 district highlights,” Tutt said. “We want to be competing for that district spot.”