If you like reading about talented and impressive volleyball players then you’ll be glued to vballrecruiter.com for the next couple of weeks as we go on our journey through the two end of the year national championships. Wednesday brought us Day 1 of the 14s and 18s divisions at AAUs in Orlando. We’ll get to some of the day’s action further down if you keep scrolling. But first, we want to highlight the Show Stoppers from Day 1. These are the players who made us take notice while we were roaming from court to court.
Kalyssa Taggart, S, A5 Mizuno 14 Helen – Taggart hits her spots well. She has an easy, seamless delivery and can go behind her well too.
Sophia Stallworth, MB, WPVC 14 Armour Black – Stallworth is a smooth attacker with an easy swing. Defenders need to be on their toes because Stallworth can connect and hit with pact.
Elle Mottola, S, WPVC 14 Armour Black – Mottola has a nice touch and delivers consistently hittable balls.
Amelia Mancino, OH, WPVC 14 Armour Black – A bit undersized, Mancino isn’t afraid to challenge blockers. She was showing ability to tool blocks with aggressive swings.
Alivia Morgan, RS, Rev 14-1 Fuego – Morgan was a viable threat on the right side. She’s lanky with a nice swing who is capable of catching a few and ripping them for winners.
Ella Jenkins, OH, Rev 14-1 Fuego – We recently saw Jenkins at the JVA SummerFest and she was back doing her thing. She’s the go-to outside who gets off the ground well and pressures defenses to try and slow her down.
Ashlyn Cobb, OH, Tribe 14 Elite – The outsides for Tribe are tough to slow down. Cobb takes big swings and isn’t afraid to get after it, whether front or back row.
Vitoria Belfort, OH, Tribe 14 Elite – Belfort is quick off the ground, which makes her harder to time blocking. She also showed a nice knack for making some defensive plays in the back row.
Reagan Turk, L, Team Indiana 14.1 – Turk was nails. She wasn’t getting a lot of action in serve receive but when the ball did find her she was on target to the setter.
Lydia Stahley, OH, Team Indiana 14.1 – Team Indiana moves Stahley around to throw different looks at the defense. Stahley is a force with her fluid swing and ability to carry the offense.
Sydni Lafasciano, OH, Dynasty 14 Black – Lafasciano is a dangerous weapon for Dynasty. She explodes off the ground and has a quick swing. She was putting down impressive kills on the regular.
Elizabeth Scanlon, OH, Dynasty 14 Black – One match Scanlon was playing across the front. The next she was in for six rows. She has a big arm and can really connect when the set allows for it.
Madeline Kraft, L, Northern Lights 14-1 – Kraft was a steadying presence defensively. She’s also a reliable passer out of serve receive. Teaming with DS Sidney Burley, they made up a two-person serve receive formation at times.
Rayna Christianson, S/RS, Northern Lights 14-1 – What a talent Christianson is! At 6-2, she’s long and is good enough setting and hitting it’s hard to say which she is better at. She has great hands running the offense and is a total mismatch when attacking with her height.
Caroline Banks, S, Northern Lights 14-1 – The backrow setter in a 6-2, Banks moves well and hits her spots on the regular.
Kenlee Barnard, S, Metro VBC 14 Rasche – This is likely a name you’ll be hearing more of in the future. Barnard oozes potential. She’s tall at 6-1 with good hands. The future is bright for her.
Siri Fullop, L, Metro VBC 14 Rasche – Fullop is scrappy and confident, darting in and picking off balls. Her passing was on point as she rarely missed keeping Metro in system.
Geiliany Del Valle, S, Top Select 14 Elite – Del Valle was smooth and effective. She displayed nice hands and was able to get her various hitters involved when in system.
Isabella Umpierre, RS, Top Select 14 Elite – A springy lefty, Umpierre is quick on the attack. She has a fluid swing and can find the hole in the block to exploit it.
Allie Davison, S, Mich Elite 14 Mizuno – Davison sets a nice ball. She didn’t miss her spots very much and was putting her hitters in good positions to score.
Graceyn Shepard, L, Triangle 14 Black – Shepard was passing well out of serve receive when the ball did come her way. She was routinely picking up cross court shots at left back and was covering touches well to keep the play alive.
Maya McConnell, OH, Munciana 14 Chipmunks – McConnell went on the best serving running we saw all day. She has a strong jump serve with lots of topspin. She was also able to make a few nice digs in the back row to help her own cause and stay serving.
Andrea Rodriguez, S/RS, OT 14 Cristobal – Rodriguez plays an important role by setting and attacking. She has a good touch and was dishing to her spots with consistent accuracy.
Isabel Taylor, OH, Club V 14 Ren Silver – Taylor was not holding back. She was attacking with aggression and was a threat to hit from different spots on the court, including out of the middle.
Grace Jones, L, Tri-State Elite 14 Blue – Jones was displaying a tough serve, one with lots of movement and deep near the end line.
Sienna Fry, OH, Summit 14 Elite – When Fry is front row she gets set as often as possible. For good reason, she’s long with a good swing and can go right over the top of smaller blockers.
Sarah Ojeda, OH, Wildfire Albert 14 – Ojeda is a bit undersized but she stood out for her tremendous defense and passing ability. She has a sound platform and is spot-on consistently when challenged in serve receive.
Chalei Reid, OH, Mauloa 14s Green – A powerful and physical outside, Reid was simply overpowering at times. Smaller blockers have no way of slowing her down and she’s a real threat from the back row as well.
Brynn Kirsch, L, Kairos 18 Adidas – Kirsch was money. She was flying around the court and was seemingly everywhere the ball went. She’s high energy with a high motor.
Ramsey Gary, L, Asics Munciana 18 Samurai – A five-star Class of 2023 recruit committed to Indiana, Gary is the real deal. She made some spectacular saves and covers a lot of court. She was laying out saving balls hit to middle back and just as easily picking off balls coming at her down the line.
Kyndal Presley, MB, Alabama Perf 18 National – This 6-0 middle was a great option in the middle with her ability to run the slide. She plays taller than she is, touching balls and slowing down attacks.
Natalie Schmitz, OH, Kokoro Volleyball 18-1 – Schmitz, at 6-1, was getting great extension on her swings. She was hitting winners deep near the end line as well as tooling blockers.
Brooklyn Briscoe, MB, Coast 17-1 – A 6-4 middle committed to UCLA, Briscoe was helping open up the attack with her ability to score seemingly at will. She was finding the open spots on the floor, including a ridiculous wrist-away sharp angle attack.
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The 18 Open field is an intimate one, with just 16 teams participating and chasing gold. There are some of the usual suspects like Sports Performance 18 Elite and Asics Munciana 18 Samurai, as well as K2 18 Adidas Jota and Kairos 18 Adidas. Making the trek from So Cal this year though is Coast 17-1, which is playing up in preparation for playing in 17 Open at the USAV GJNC in a couple of weeks. The teams are divided into two, eight-team pools. The clubs are playing three matches on Day 1 and Day 2, then finishing off the pool with one match on Day 3 before getting into challenge play to determine the Day 4 gold bracket.
The most surprising result of the Day 1 was No. 13 overall seed High Voltage 17/18 /College Prep going 3-0. The Florida squad produced victories over WVBA 18 Adidas, K2 and USANY Fortitude, all three of which are seeded higher. Overall No. 1 seed SPVB went 3-0, as did No. 2 seed Munciana. Coast was also 3-0 in Pool 2 along with Muncie. Coast and Muncie face off to close out Day 2 play.
As for 14 Open, 43 teams opened with hopes of walking away with a gold medal. Only 10 of them were eliminated from that dream after Day 1. Teams had to finish third place or better in their respective pools to advance. That changes on Day 2, when it reverts to the customary format of needing to finish second or better to move on.
The seedings strongly held form Wednesday. Nine of the 10 teams knocked from contention were No. 4 teams from their pools. The lone exception was Wildfire Albert 14. The Florida club actually went 2-1 and took second after earning victories over UC Elite 14 Oliver and Club V 14 Ren Silver. UC Elite, the No. 3 team, went 0-3 and did not advance.
The No. 1 teams in their pools to go 3-0 included Boiler Jrs 14 Gold, GP 14 Rox, Kairos 14 Adidas, Dynasty 14 Black, Rev 14-1, WPVC 14 Armour Black and Top Select 14 Elite. Madfrog 14 Black went 2-0 as the No. 1 team in the three-team Pool 11.
The few results that bucked the seedings included fifth-seeded Legacy 14-1 Adidas falling to OT 14 Cristobal in the 1 v 2 meeting. Similarly, No. 9 seed A5 Mizuno 14 Helen finished 2-1 after going down to Tribe 14 Elite. Tribe was the No. 3 team and went 3-0, also defeating Munciana 14 Chipmunks. In Pool 10, the No. 2 team in Adidas KiVA 14 Red upended the No. 1 team in Mizuno Northern Lights 14-1 to go 3-0.
The seedings actually landed Tribe and KiVA in the same pool for Day 2, along with Team Indiana 14.1 and Club V. With A5 losing, the Georgia club is in the same Day 2 pool as OT. Also, Boiler Jrs and Legacy are in Pool 1 together in another notable matchup set for Thursday.
