Maiwenn Kamdje is a star on the girls’ volleyball team. She has been a captain of the team for two years now, and, this year, led her team to a spot in the Elite Eight of the Division Championship. She has been awarded League All-Star for two seasons in a row now, and Carey League MVP after this past season.
On the court her dominance is undeniable, but it’s the work she puts in that most people don’t see that has made her so successful.
“I do strength training four-six days a week, mostly lifting to stay in shape and to help my jump. I also have club practice for two-three hours on top of the in-season school practice every day,” said Kamdje.
When asked what she personally thinks separates her from other strong players her age, she pointed to the hours she spends in the gym lifting. Her vertical jump is extremely important for her position as a hitter, and lifting has helped her move her reach from nine foot seven inches to ten foot two inches in only months.
Kamdje began playing volleyball in 8th grade and was influenced to pick it up by her older brother who played for the boy’s team at the high school. It wasn’t until the summer going into high school that she started to think about wanting to play at the collegiate level, and started to take steps to make it happen. She began attending tournaments, emailing coaches, and touring schools, devoting much of her time to the challenging process of recruitment.
Next fall, she is going to play Division III volleyball for Tufts University.
“It’s really great to see all of my hard work pay off finally given all of the sacrifices I’ve made,” said Kamdje.
Kamdje shares that there were many times she wanted to go hang out with friends on Friday nights but instead spent the night at the library in order to get work done before weekend tournaments.
Abby Zimmer, one of the other captains of the girls’ volleyball team described Maiwenn as a great person to co-captain with.
“She devoted a lot of her time to helping the team become better both on and off the court. The last few years playing with her have been very fun! She is invested in this program not only for the girl’s teams but also the boys: she was the team manager for them.” said Zimmer ’24