Sports Editor
Macy Lee has a knack for making the right play at the right time, even if she can be unpredictable.
That’s what makes Piedmont’s senior setter so reliable and so valuable. When the Lady Wildcats need a big play, Lee is almost always in the middle of the action.
“She sets the ball well and she makes good decisions on the court,” head coach Tom Williams said.
By trade, setters help facilitate their team’s success, but don’t score as much. When Lee needs to, though, she can deliver critical points. In a five-set win over Norman High at the Westmoore Tournament, Lee provided a match-point winner no one saw coming.
The Tigers called timeout with Piedmont ahead 14-13 in the decisive fifth set. Williams told Piedmont to run its offense when play resumed, but when the ball came to Lee, she improvised with a quick dump shot that won the match for the Lady Wildcats.
“I didn’t see it coming. Nobody saw it coming. The Norman kids just kind of looked at each other and the ball hit the floor,” Williams said. “I can tell you right now, there’s no one in the state that can read her and tell when she’s going to dump the ball. We’ve been trying for four years.”
It was an instinctual play that isn’t easy to coach. Lee herself said it’s hard to explain why she decided to play the shot that way then. She just reacted.
“Everyone always asks me that and I don’t know,” she said. “It’s just a feeling. A lot of it is competitiveness. I know we need a point. I know I have to do something.”
Lee’s competitive nature comes naturally. Her parents Casey and Mandy were high school athletes. Her older sister Maddie was the starting point guard for Piedmont’s 2019 state championship basketball team, and Lee’s younger brother Cannon is a three-sport athlete at PHS.
“The attitudes I’ve been around have formed my mindset toward the game,” she said.
Lee is relatively inexperienced as a setter, despite her natural feel for the position. She moved there during her freshman season when the team needed help. She earned a starting spot and hasn’t looked back since.
During her club season after a solid freshman year, Lee truly settled into the position, she said.
“I learned the footwork and the details of setting, not just putting the ball into the air,” Lee said.
Williams said Lee has been instrumental in the fourth-ranked Lady Wildcats’ 12-5 start.
“Her leadership skills have been top notch,” Williams said.
Lee makes Piedmont’s offense go. She helps hitters like PHS star Kaylie Marshall have success. It’s important for Lee to know how her teammates like to be fed the ball at the net, because no two players are the same.
“You have to be able to adjust to different hitting styles,” she said.
Lee has picked up some of the finer points of setting watching from the stands or on TV.
“I watch a lot of college setters on TV and I went to a lot of OU games when I was younger,” she said. “Watching how they perform and how they act on the court as a setter has helped me a lot with my game.”
