Colorado Mesa University volleyball coach Austin Albers said it best, "We live in a society today where it's really easy to jump ship.  It's really easy to quit when things don't go your way."
 
Maverick middle blocker Jaycee Windorski could have easily chosen that path but instead put in the work and has emerged as a force to be reckoned in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
 
After playing in just two of the Mavericks' 102 sets as a freshman in 2024 and in 11 of 103 as a sophomore in 2025 under two different head coaches, the 6-foot-1 junior out of the small mountain town of Leadville, Colorado has emerged to be a star on the top of her game.
 
Windorski, who had just six total kills and six total blocks in her first two seasons combined, has already put down 75 kills and 46 blocks while starting all 14 of the Mavs' matches to date.  As a big part of the Mavs' strong 11-3 start, good for a share of the RMAC lead, Windorski ranks third in the RMAC for hitting percentage at .357 and is sixth in the conference for blocking.
 
"I think the last two years, I was kind of struggling with my confidence," Windorski said.
 
I told myself if I'm not going to play, then go down swinging. I just kind of came into the season with a different mindset of, I'm going to go all out and just see what happens."
 
"Yeah, I think we want to sometimes romanticize the journey a little bit.  In our first nine months together, Jaycee and I had discussions about does she fit with our program, multiple times," Albers said.
 
Albers was hired as CMU's head coach in February, 2025 after Windorski's freshman season, which she saw very limited playing time under 20-year Maverick head coach Dave Fleming, now in his second season at Division I North Texas.
 
"I like where she is at right now.  She's crushing it, she's doing things, but we had to challenge her a little bit."
 
"We see all this potential, but we need you to tap into it," he said about those conversations with Windorski. 
 
"We need you to want it for yourself as bad as we want it for you," Albers told Windorski.
 
Although the head coaches were different, Windorski did have the constant bond with Maverick assistant coach Bri Strong, a former standout middle at NCAA Division I Northern Colorado.
 
"I actually talked a lot with her and I feel like me and her are pretty close because she's the middle blockers' coach, so we spend the most time with her. I think she noticed that I would get in my head a lot, so we had a lot of one-on-one conversations about why I was so nervous and how to get over that. And she gave me a lot of exercises and stuff to do outside of practice to help with that.
 
Windorski, also credited her teammates with helping her on the journey.
 
"It's always hard to not play.  I think as a freshman everyone comes in with some impostor syndrome, and I just felt like I wasn't really ready to play. But I think just focusing on the team was very helpful for me, knowing my role and trying to just bring the good energy and be fun on the bench. It was a good distraction from not always playing a lot," she said.
 
"And then a huge shout-out to Ashlyn Tafoya, I feel like this spring, she really helped me.
 
She was the first player to believe in me, and you can just feel that," Windorski complemented her sophomore teammate, who had a stellar Second Team All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference freshman campaign in 2025.
 
"At the end of the day she is the setter, so she decides if I get the ball or not, and I just know that she has that confidence in me, and that's really helped me this year," Windorski said.

"I've looked back (at film) I played very timid.  I think I'm more prone to mistakes when I play super stressed. I'm not a serious player at all.  I like to have fun. I don't play well when I'm super serious. So I think I just honestly tell myself to have more fun with it. I put way too much pressure on myself, and I just don't play well in an environment like that."
 
Now that she's an upperclassman, Albers is using Windorski's story to help the young Maverick squad that includes six freshman and five sophomores, some of which are seeing limited playing time, just as Windorski did.
 
"I guess in a world where transferring out is the easy option and entitlement runs rampant, I saw Jaycee just stick with it and do the work," Albers said.
 
"That's a teaching lesson for the players of the world today, because there's unhappy freshmen on every team who think they should get a shot but are still learning how to sit on the bench while they wait for their opportunity," he continued.
 
"I think Jaycee is a great role model and a great storyline, whether it be for recruiting or whether it be for the current players on the roster who are working through playing through a non-starting role for the first time in their lives of what can happen if you believe in yourself and you stick to it, rather than take the easy way out."
 
Albers had a lot of positives to say about Windorski's skill set.
 
"She's a monster, and she's also serving her tail off right now, too. And so, when you have a person that can affect both sides of the ball in the middle, it's pretty unique at our level. You see a lot of people in our league that are offensive middles or defensive middles, and they're good at one side of the ball. But to be able to affect the game in the three phases that she gets to play — offense, defense, and from the serve line — is huge. And heck, if you hit a ball where she's going dig it, too, I mean, she's no slouch defensively. It's great to have that presence. I'm so happy for her that she has worked into that and just untapped all that potential," the coach said.
 
"We told her for ten months that, 'you are the most talented and physically gifted middle that we have on the roster, we just need you to believe it, or to figure it out," Albers said.

"And she did.  It's been really cool to see, and it's something that we can pass along to our younger middles."
 
Windorski is excited about the future with those younger teammates.
 
"I think our team has a lot of potential. We have a really good freshman class this year — and so I'm really excited to play the next two years with them, because all of them are able to play right now. We could put any of them out and it would be fine. So I'm, really excited to grow with them and see how much better they get throughout the years, and I think that's going be really good for our team," she said.
 
Albers also spoke of Windorski's personal potential.
 
"It's sky high. She has the capability to be a go-to person for us, not just in terms of her production but in terms of being a great testament to what it means to stick with it."
 
"She's been huge for our team, just to have that steady presence in the middle who's such a great teammate student who does all the right stuff off the floor. It always makes me happy as a coach when those people get to shine, because you can point to them as great examples away from the court as well. It's not just limited to the volleyball arena," he said.
 
Windorski treats the volleyball court as her escape.  Also an RMAC Academic Honor Roll selection with a 3.73 GPA while majoring in the time-intensive exercise science program, she has a clear goal to go on to physical therapy school and become a physical therapist.
 
"I feel like volleyball is my break for the day. I study a lot, and, like, it's honestly a fun break from the day. I feel like I'm always better in-season because I get to go do something fun for a couple of hours.  "I like to move around, and then it's easier for me to, like, study and stuff.
 
"In season you have to be on top of it. You have to be organized or it's not going work out," she advised."