TALLAHASSEE, Florida – Eventually, Maddie Trusty would be moved down. Had to. She knew it.
The redshirt junior was only on court two because of a few strange happenstances that all coincided at once: an injury here, a partnership swap there. So there she was, on February 28, bumped up from court four to court two alongside freshman Gella Andrew, battling into three sets with a Georgia State team ranked No. 16 in the country, winning 15-13 to complete the sweep for the Seminoles.
“Buzzin’” is how Trusty describes the feeling after that win. It’s one she thought would be shortlived. Soon, she figured, Myriah Massey, holder of a U19 World Championship, would be back, and surely the coaching staff wouldn’t keep a player with 15 total matches in her career prior to the season and another with 0 as high as court two, right?
“I’m gonna go back down to like my three, four,” she recalled thinking.
The coaches thought otherwise. Because Trusty and Andrew just… kept… winning. Six of their next seven matches. In a week-long stretch at the end of March and early April, they’d sweep four straight ranked opponents: Long Beach (21-11, 21-15), LSU (21-18, 21-11), Texas (22-20, 21-19) and FAU (22-20, 22-20). They were a rare bright spot in a visit to Cal Poly, going 2-2 while pulling off a stunning comeback against Arizona State. Down 1-8 in the third set, they completed a remarkable 15-6 run to win, 16-14, in the third. By season’s end, they were one of Florida State’s most consistent pairs, an unlikely duo who would finish 26-13 with three post-season wins in their maiden post-season appearances as starters.
“Last season was just incredible. I think that I grew a lot as a player and a person, but it was super rewarding to play that level of volleyball and playing with Gella is super awesome,” Trusty said. “I think that now that I’ve had that season in me, I guess a breakthrough season, when I started to play that high in the lineup, there were those moments of self-doubt like, ‘Can I do this? Can I do this for my team? Am I the person to play this high up?’
“But I remember after Gulf Shores, just soaking it all in. I was like, ‘I did that.’ And as a team, we pulled that off and I think there is so much room to grow. And I kind of took that with me. And when I came back here in August, I was just like, ‘Let’s go, last go round.’ ”
She is hyper-aware that this is her last season in Tallahassee. Already, she has seen the class she came in with – Makenna Wolfe, Madison Binkley, the Bergner twins, Anna Long – women she called her future bridesmaids, graduate or transfer for a fifth year elsewhere. She understands the ephemerality of a season, particularly the final one in a college career. It’s put Trusty in both a reflective and nostalgic yet undeniably hungry state of mind: Trying to capture and hold onto it all while still in pursuit of Florida State’s first National Championship.
“I’m just soaking it in, making sure I’m staying present because I’m not gonna get any of these days back, which I just can’t talk about right now, but I don’t have to because I have so much time left,” she said. “The more I interact with other people, the more I know I’m leaving a legacy here and just trying to implement things with people because I know I’m not gonna be on this team or be on a team like this ever again. I’m just trying to stay in the moment and drop little hints of advice everywhere I go.”
It’s why she has labeled herself Uncle Trusty. The oldest member of a still-young team, dropping golden nuggets of wisdom here, hyping her teammates there, embracing her role as the elder statesman teammates both new and old look to for examples on the court and off.
“I’m unk. I’m unk status, so I’m big unk this year,” she said with a laugh. “I’m just trying to be positive, be adaptable and Uncle Trusty is here. I can’t believe this is my last year.”
Neither, probably, can her parents, Landon and Erica. It must have seemed as if it would never end, those endless days driving the four-plus hours in the wee hours of the morning to get their daughter to another beach volleyball tournament in Dallas, Texas. The sounds of those shrill whistles intruding their sleep after another impossibly long indoor tournament. The overnight drives from Arkansas to Tallahassee, 10 hours and 50 minutes on the dot – “I’ve done that drive many times,” Trusty said with a knowing smile – that are now, suddenly, able to be counted on just a single hand.
“I owe all that I am to them,” she said. “They were both athletes and they know what it’s like and I’ve felt nothing but supported throughout this entire process, not just an athletic standpoint, just from love. I make jokes with my mom because when I came to college, I realized ‘Oh, not everyone has that support and love from their parents.’ And I always joke like, ‘Oh, you were too supportive. You gave me too much confidence.’ They are the best.”
And, as fall competition has begun, Trusty is making a firm case as being one of the best defenders in the country. In the first fall tournament, at Stetson, Trusty and Andrew ran the table, beating four straight opponents – two of them their own teammates at FSU – to win the title.
“I woke up and I just was in the best mood and I was trying to give that energy to other people because I knew other people probably had butterflies,” she said. “But it’s just such a blessing to be able to play in this jersey.”
