Saturday, November 14, 2026
Senior libero Sophia Shea bumps the ball in Marco Island Academy’s win over Lely.
Lely’s Madi Richardson-Canady appears deep in thought during a time-out.
MIA’s Camryn Rose kills the ball against Lely’s McKenna Broxson with Summer LaButte looking on. Rose has over 1,000 kills in her MIA career.
Lyndsay Lowdermilk, Skye LaButte and Camryn Rose celebrate a point.
The Lely mascot’s body language tells the story of his team’s match against Marco Island Academy.
Virginia Rose bumps the ball over the net against Lely.
Lely libero Elisa Smith celebrates a point.
Lely’s Kylie Bledsoe attempts a kill shot.
Rays head coach, Alyssa Stolinas, is 62-28 after four years at the helm.
Lely’s Hope Heidenreich bumps the ball in traffic.
MIA sophomore Jenna Ragan bumps the ball.
MA senior Skye LaButte gets up high for a kill shot.
MIA student Abigail Gallup with the Rays mascot. Gallup is the editor of the MIA student newspaper.
It was more of an unspoken thing than a spoken one. But 2A Marco Island Academy's home and home sweep of 5A Lely was a big deal for the Rays volleyball program.
Lely started out strong, looking determined to defend their home court on Wednesday, October 13, holding leads at 14-11, 17-14, and 23-19 in the first set.
But the Rays battled back, closing the gap to 23-22. The first set was tied at 24-24 before MIA won the final two points to finish the set, 26-24. The Rays had an easier time the next two sets, winning 25-15 and 25-19. The straight sets win comes just two weeks after MIA scored a straight sets win over the Trojans on Marco on September 29 in the Rays new gymnasium.
Lely is traditionally a strong volleyball program. They’ve racked up a slew of district championships over the years. In fact, they enjoyed an eight-year undefeated streak in 5A district play from 2011-2019.
MIA might be best described as a rising 2A program, enjoying increasing success under head coach Alyssa Stolinas, who was a player at the school during its formative years. The Rays are in their 11th season, their fourth under Stolinas. They are 62-28 under Stolinas. They were 14-56 in their first six seasons.
“I think we were a little more calm this time,” Stolinas said of her team after the match. “We were prepared. We stuck to our technique. We didn’t let all of the other stuff get in our heads. We just played our game.”
The Rays (18-3) couldn’t be blamed if they were intimidated playing a team with Lely’s heritage, even though the Trojans (7-15) are battling through a challenging season. Stolinas said her team relishes the opportunity to play bigger schools like Lely. She hopes matches between the friendly rivals continue.
“Playing them is great,” Stolinas said. "They’re a good team. It’s a battle. There’s no bad blood there. It’s a good rivalry. It’s something that the students look forward to - we all look forward to. We hope we’ll be able to play them next year and the years to come.”
With districts around the corner, Stolinas was happy to see her team come together.
"I just feel that we played really well tonight,” she said. "We played our game. It’s taken us a while to figure out. If we stick to our game we can accomplish many things.”
The Rays compete in the strong 2A District Eight that includes county powers First Baptist Academy and Seacrest.
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