Understated, Overpowering: State’s top player, Chapelle’s McCann, lets actions speak loudly
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Louisiana Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame volleyball coach Jodee Pulizzano of Archbishop Chapelle has come to expect the humble, team-first approach of senior Victoria McCann.
The more praise she heaps on her standout front-row hitter, the more McCann passes out bouquets to those around her, especially her 64-year-old school in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.
“She’s there for her team, and she loves wearing the Chapelle jersey,” Pulizzano said. “She loves this school. This is what it’s all about. … (school’s colors) green and white. The vice president of the student body. She wants to be there for her teammates and for this school.
“Sometimes you see that individual glory where kids can be all about themselves,” Pulizzano said. “We play for Chapelle. The kids play for each other, which is important, and it’s something we’ve lost with NIL. That’s the type of kid that comes through here, and that’s the type of kid Vic (McCann) is.”
Two years ago, when Pulizzano tried to drive home a message that McCann was the state’s top hitter, she took it in stride without an ounce of smugness.
McCann’s always the first to single out teammates around her for the myriad of accomplishments that have complemented her career.
When MaxPreps.com released its best players by state last month for the 2026 season, the outlet listed McCann as its top player.
Her response?
“I was very excited when I saw it, but I didn’t feel it recognized just me; they recognized my team and the hard work that we’ve put in through the summer and through a season,” she said. “It was really an honor to them, too. I don’t just look at the records for myself because it doesn’t just show who I am. I focus on doing well for my team.”
Pulizzano wasn’t certain McCann understood the level of MaxPrep’s honor and the company she was a part of.
“She was probably in shock,” she said, poking fun at McCann. “One day at practice, we did make a big deal. We congratulated her for being the (top) player in the state. I don’t think she realizes how awesome it is. She realizes it but credits her team at Chapelle. When people come up to her, she says she wouldn’t be here without the passers and setters. It doesn’t affect her. She’s still the same kid.”
Pulizzano believed McCann, a first-team Division I All-State choice in 2025, should have been in line for such national recognition the previous season.
“We told her that she was the best hitter in the state, and she should have had that award, and the year before,” she said. “She’s a stud. She truly is.”
Expect McCann to remain grounded, despite her ability to stand out and rocket launch off of the court for another crunching kill.
“I’m definitely going to put my action to work, and make sure my actions are right for my team, and do my best for everyone else,” she said the leadership she wants to provide this season.
The Chipmunks were Division I state semifinalists last season, and McCann was at the heart of her team’s success with a career-high 548 kills to go with 68 blocks.
With a career total of 1,085 kills in 125 games, McCann is expected to be a dominant presence on the next team when Chapelle begins its season with a younger-than-usual lineup. Fellow hitter Audrey Dubuc is the only other senior in a lineup that’s expected to start two juniors and two sophomores.
“We’re going to go through our growing pains,” said Pulizzano, who enters her third season at Chapelle and 36th overall (1,038-358) with six state championships and three state runners-up at Ben Franklin. “We just have to stay consistent with them. We just have to be patient and let them grow and let Vic and Audrey lead the way. It’s nice to have the best hitter in the state.”
If McCann’s the state’s top hitter, Pulizzano believes there’s room in the conversation for Dubuc, the school’s student body president.
“We think we have the two best hitters in the state,” she said. “She’s that good. They’re going to be opposite each other, and it will be, ‘Who are you shutting down? Who are you matching up with?’ As a coach, you want to tell a kid that we have the best hitter, the best setter, the best libero. We told her that right before we played (Oct. 23) Mt. Carmel. You’re the best hitter in the state. Go ahead and pound the ball.”
McCann’s volleyball journey didn’t truly take off until the second grade when she was a member of a playground team named the Krewe.
“That’s when I finally started to like this sport,” she said.
Her path to the volleyball court superseded her first love of dancing, and her continued growth through middle school solidified her status as an up-and-coming player ready to make an impact.
Of course, McCann commended the play of her older sister, Isabella, an outside hitter at Chapelle who played a significant role in her wanting to follow in Isabella’s footsteps.
The fact that they shared the same court for two years when Victoria was an eighth- and ninth-grader certainly resonated with her.
“She definitely left a good legacy for me to play,” she said. “I grew up going to watch her play, and that’s what made me want to play. I strived to be like her. She made an impact on me. My middle school years were when I started to realize that volleyball was my sport and something I wanted to work more at.”
Club volleyball, traditionally, is a catalyst for next-level players, but it was never a vehicle McCann sought to enjoy and work at the game.
Her motivation for playing volleyball and ascending to become one of the best in the sport was confined to her own personal workouts and time spent with her teammates.
Wearing the jersey of her high school provided the drive to play her best and do so with the same girls she grew up closest to.
“To play the best for my school,” she said. “I love going to school here, and I always want to represent it well. It’s definitely my favorite place to go.
“I go to workouts on my own; I go to practices sometimes for club,” she said. “I really just focus on making sure my body is ready, and I’m ready to play for my team.”
McCann was the team’s setter in her freshman season, leading Chapelle’s 6-2 offense and also hitting from the right side and playing the back row.
The Chipmunks made consecutive state quarterfinal appearances in both of McCann’s first two seasons, falling to Dominican and Dutchtown, respectively.
McCann moved forward in the team’s lineup where she became a force hitting in the front row, a spot on the floor that will continue in ’26.
“You can see the stats and how she’s terminated the ball,” Pulizzano said. “She had more responsibilities with everything else as a freshman. She was able to focus on putting the ball away. It’s a different mindset than setting.”
McCann also set and played outside as an eighth grader, where her skills became evident. Instead of directing the team’s offense during her sophomore and junior seasons, she became an integral part in giving the Chipmunks a physical element of play at the net.
She experienced a gain of 81 kills to 456 in her sophomore year that also included a .239 attacking percentage.
Pulizzano noticed the harder McCann played, the harder she became on herself.
The standard for helping the team had grown during her career where McCann left herself with little room for error.
“Vic is the type of kid that’s hard on herself,” she said. “Most really good kids want to point the finger. She’s all about doing her job. She’s not a kid that comes off cocky. She’s a worker.”
During the team’s recent jamboree, which featured games against Archbishop Hannan, John Curtis and Dominican, McCann approached Pulizzano with an admission.
“She had four kills in seven attempts against Hannan. She came to me and said, ‘Coach, I didn’t play good,”’ Pulizzano said. “Now over 50% of the balls she hit were kills. I told her that wasn’t true; she played well. She expects to be perfect. That’s who she is.”
McCann acknowledged she’s less tolerant of her play because of the example she wants to set for everyone.
“I’m definitely very hard on myself,” she said. “I do that because I want to play well for my team and I know that I can always do better.”
McCann was at the top of her game throughout Chapelle’s run to the semifinals, the second season under Pulizzano.
She recorded double-digit kills in 23 of her team’s 34 matches with a high of 26 against Haynes Academy, Dominican and Mt. Carmel.
McCann reached that standard in all four of her team’s playoff matches with a best of 24 kills in a 3-1 regional win over Byrd. In her team’s 3-0 sweep of Mt. Carmel in the quarterfinals, McCann registered 21 kills, and in the semifinals against eventual state champion Slidell, she had 19 to finish with a career high for a season.
“She was our weapon,” Pulizzano said. “She averaged 4.4 kills per set. She had 548 kills in 1,335 attempts a season after having 3.8 kills per set with 456 kills in 1,223 attempts. We expect her to get five or six kills (per set). She’s a way better player this year. Her maturity is totally different.”
Pulizzano said McCann’s leadership style fits her level of experience on the team.
“She’s more of the mother type,” she said. “She’s going to make sure everybody has their stuff. She’s going to make sure everyone’s feeling OK. She’s going to solve any problems. She’s going to do it in her actions.”
The ferocity of the ball leaving her hand is one attribute McCann uses to instill fear into the opposition. Another avenue is to outthink the defense, and with three years to her credit as a starter, McCann’s able to find holes on the court with an improved sleight-of-hand in shot-making that’s made her more dangerous to stop.
“She’s able to hit angles now, and she has a finesse game,” she said. “She sees the tips and is able to put it there, where she wasn’t able to do that before. She did a little bit of it as a sophomore. Now she truly has different shots, and she knows how to use them now. If the ball’s outside, she knows how to hit that sharp angle.”
The lead up to the season in the summer for McCann’s final season at Chapelle was to train either individually or with teammates and practiced somewhat with a local club team.
When it came to putting forth a concerted effort for this season, McCann worked together with those who know her best. Summer league play was one barometer Pulizzano used to see her new team.
“She’s all about Chapelle,” she said. “She’s not about club or college. She’s playing volleyball for Chapelle. She’s different than any other kid.”
The payoff for McCann is not college volleyball. It’s not even on her radar as the straight-A student, whose never made a B in her academic career, is full-fledged focused on her final season and helping the Chipmunks advance as far as possible.
“I love playing with my friend Audrey because she’s always motivated me,” she said. “She knows that I can do better, and I always tell her that she can do better. We tell each other during a game what each other can do and what the other person can do better.”
Said Pulizzano: “She doesn’t want to play in college. She’s all about high school. She wants to play for Chapelle, win a state championship and move on do her college thing, and move on from there. She’s a very simple kid.”
The thought of walking off the floor of the Lafayette Cajundome, following a 3-1 defeat to Slidell, remains somewhat vivid in McCann’s mind.
“I do feel that last year did give us a lot of motivation for this year,” she said of the semifinal finish. “We have a lot of tools that we can use to do well this year and get back and play well in the Cajundome. I’m definitely motivated to do better.
“I’m focusing on the volleyball season, and once volleyball’s done, I’ll look toward colleges,” she said. “I’m not going to play volleyball in college. At the end of state (tournament), I will probably be done playing volleyball. My goal is just to play for my school and to represent it well.”