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The Ann Kang Invitational first took place in 1989. Since then, no school has brought home more tournament titles than Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach. The So Cal school – which is the defending champion – has racked up seven trophies and is favored as the top seed and highest-ranked squad in the 16-team field in this year’s edition. The three-day event is hosted by ‘Iolani and is set for Aug. 10-12. Below, we look at the nationally-ranked teams to watch for, our 3, 4 and 5-star athletes participated as well offer our outlook and predictions to how the results will pan out. vballrecruiter.com NATIONALLY-RANKED SCHOOLS (5): *** 5-STAR ATHLETES TO KNOW *** 4-STAR ATHLETES TO KNOW *** 3-STAR ATHLETES TO KNOW   OUTLOOK: A year ago, Mira Costa and Sierra Canyon CA played an epic pool-play match, with Sierra Canyon winning the third set going to 15, 25-23, in overscore. The two sides faced off later in the day for the championship match, with Mira Costa extracting revenge and winning its seven Ann Kang title. Mira Costa ended its season by becoming the only team to take a set off of eventual national champion Cathedral CA with its loss in the California Open Division state semifinals. While the Mustangs saw senior contributors graduate, they are primed for another strong year led by senior setter/right side and 5-star Wisconsin commit Charlie Fuerbringer. She’s one of three 5-star recruits on the roster, with the other two being junior libero Taylor Deckert (USC) and sophomore outside Audrey Flanagan. Sierra Canyon also figures to be in the mix once more for the tournament title, as well as a pair of Texas schools in Cornerstone Christian and Lovejoy. Cornerstone finished last season ranked No. 2 in the country. Like Mira Costa, the Warriors graduated key senior contributors but bring back enough to remain one of the top teams in the country. Among those returning are 5-star junior outside Megan Fitch (Texas AM) and 4-star senior right side Grace Carroll (Baylor). The full rundown of participating schools is: Pool 1   Pool 2   PREDICTION: With Mira Costa and Lovejoy the top seeds in Pool A, we expect those two to advance to the four-team gold bracket on Saturday. In Pool B, it’s Cornerstone Christian and host ‘Iolani the top two teams. However, we are looking at Cornerstone advancing along with the No. 3 team in the pool in Sierra Canyon. While a rematch from last year between Mira Costa and Sierra Canyon would be fun, it’s looking like a showdown between Mira Costa and Cornerstone Christian in the final. The two teams actually played last year in the final of the Nike TOC Southwest event, with Cornerstone winning in three. We like Cornerstone having Mira Costa’s number once more and going back to the mainland with its first-ever Ann Kang title.

We’re proud to be a part of an ongoing partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is sponsoring our Player of the Week award. We’ll be releasing a featured vballrecruiter.com Player of the Week, sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, on Tuesdays. Below is this week’s Player of the Week: Kayla Nwabueze. *** Our latest Player of the Week is coming off a breakout 15s club campaign in which she established herself as one of the top players in the country. Kayla Nwabueze – a 5-star middle blocker from the Class of 2026 – helped Legacy 15-1 Adidas to a fifth-place finish in 15 Open at the USAV Girls Junior National Championships this summer in Chicago, as well as finishing No. 4 overall in vballrecruiter.com’s Top 50 National Rankings. With the club season being done for well over a month, Nwabueze has been gearing up for another high school season at Bloomfield Hills. She starred last season as a freshman in her role as a six-rotation middle. She finished the year leading the team in both kills (412) and blocks (155) as Bloomfield Hills lost in the district playoffs to eventual state champion Marian. It’s been a quick rise for the sophomore, as Nwabueze first started off her 12s season playing for Legacy. Her older sister, Ashlea, started playing volleyball in seventh grade and loved it so it wasn’t long after Nwabueze had her try. “My first time playing was at a club practice,” Nwabueze said. “I was really nervous at first. Everyone was really welcoming and knew each other and that made it more fun. I didn’t get how to play in rotations or anything like that. After about two weeks I started to get the hang of things. My 14s year I knew I wanted to do it as my main sport because I really loved it.” Nwabueze was part of a Legacy 14-1 Adidas team that earned a bronze medal in 14 Open at the 2022 AAU National Championships. Nwabueze and company repeated the feat this past season, leaving Orlando with another bronze before finishing tied for fifth at the USAV GJNC two weeks later. The gold-bracket losses were similar, with Legacy having a chance in both contests. At AAUs, Legacy fell in three sets to eventual champion Mintonette Sports m.51, 16-25, 36-34, 15-12, before facing the same fate against Hou Skyline 15 Royal in the quarterfinals in Chicago with another three-set loss, 18-25, 25-18, 15-12. “This 15s season was incredible,” Nwabueze said. “We have four amazing coaches. They are hard on us but discipline us to take accountability and make us better players. The team was so natural we had a flow like we had been together since babies. It made it really nice. I don’t remember a time when we got mad with each other or we weren’t all laughing. I’m looking forward to next club season being another great one.” As our featured Player of the Week sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, we recently spoke with Nwabueze about volleyball and more. Who is your role model or someone you look up to? Nwabueze: I have more than one. I really look up to outside of volleyball and some with volleyball is my older sister. When she was first playing I was watching her games and thinking I want to be that good. But outside of volleyball I really look up to her because overall she is a really great person. Also, academic wise, she graduated valedictorian. Personality wise, she gives off a really good vibe. She doesn’t get mad at you. She has good vibe about her and it makes her a good person. Another role model is my mom. She is very successful in my opinion. She likes to hold people accountable and she’ll tell you when you are not doing your best. She knows you can do better and she holds you to a standard. If she wasn’t here I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without her. Someone in volleyball I look up to is Asjia O’Neal. She plays on Texas. She’s a great middle blocker. I was watching a couple of videos on her mastering the slide. She’s known for her notorious slides. On the court she’s in the zone, focused and ready to go. She’s one of my role models. What is your favorite food? Nwabueze: I love french fries. I could eat french fries without any sides. Or I love wings from Wingstop. Aside from necessities, what is one thing you could not go a day without? Nwabueze: It’s pretty bad to say but I can’t go a day without my phone. It has all my contacts. When I get bored on I’m on my phone. It would have to be my phone. Other than volleyball, what skill would you most like to learn and why? Nwabueze: I think what I would want to learn is to how to learn to play football. It’s a really big sport and I don’t really know what’s going on during the Super Bowl. What is one thing that instantly makes your day better or makes you smile? Nwabueze: My sisters, both of them. They really lighten my mood. They make me laugh a lot. They are my main source of whenever I’m laughing. If you could have any superpower what would it be and why? Nwabueze: It would definitely be reading people’s minds. I think because especially asking questions or when someone is telling me stuff and I’m trying to find out the truth I could read their minds so I know what they are keeping from me. Outside of volleyball what are you most passionate about and why? Nwabueze: I’m most passionate about my schoolwork and things that are academic based. I feel if I am good about academics and volleyball then I can be a really successful person in life. What is one thing that may surprise people about you? Nwabueze: That I play instruments. I don’t give off the

We’re proud to be a part of an ongoing partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is sponsoring our Player of the Week award. We’ll be releasing a featured vballrecruiter.com Player of the Week, sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, on Tuesdays. Below is this week’s Player of the Week: Maya Evens. *** Last year Cathedral Catholic capped a perfect season by sweeping St. Francis of Mountain View in the CIF Open Division state championship match to finish the high school season as undisputed national champions. Mira Costa was the only opponent which managed to take even a set off the Dons, with it coming a round before in the state semifinals. While Cathedral Catholic loses 10 seniors – including 5-star recruits Julia Blyashov (Stanford) and Noemie Glover (Oregon) – the cupboard is hardly empty. Part of the returning core includes Class of 2025 4-star recruit Maya Evens, who was the starting libero last fall for Cathedral Catholic and spent this past club season playing up in the same role for Wave 17 Juliana – which finished ninth in 17 Open at the USAV Girls Junior National Championships last month in Chicago. “I think that was the most surreal experience being an underclassmen playing alongside some of the biggest names in Noemie and Julia,” Evens said. “I played with them in club and in open gym, but being part of that team with them helped change my perspective on how to act and what I should be doing as a teammate. They definitely inspired me and would help me when I was feeling down on myself. They were always like ‘You got this.’ It was awesome. They felt like big sisters.” Evens’ mom – Juliana Conn – coaches at both Cathedral Catholic and Wave and is the reason her daughter started playing volleyball in the first place. With her mom coaching, Evens grew up in a gym but wasn’t exactly begging her mom to play at first. She would pepper and mess around with the ball at times, but Evens needed to be pushed to get her true start. “I know this might sound bad and it’s not meant to, but I didn’t have a super big choice if I wanted to participate,” Evens said. “I’m so happy my mom opened my horizon and had me try it. She said maybe I would love it. I did a few camps and tried it out. There was something about it where I absolutely fell in love. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s a different feeling than I ever had.” A parent coaching their child means not only navigating their relationship but the coach-player one as well. Evens said her and her mom have always done well being able to separate the two. “We do a really good job at keeping it separate,” Evens said. “She’s a respectable coach. I really enjoy having her as a coach. I have friends who say they could never have their mom as their coach but we have separated the two really well. If I mess up (playing) she’ll treat me like any other player during the games. After that, she’s my mom and she does a really good job supporting me and being there for me. She’s a really good coach and has 100 percent made me into the player I am and I couldn’t do it without her.” From her first season playing club until now, Evens has always played up at least one age group. She was part of a Wave team which lost just one outing in Chicago, with it coming against Metro 17 Travel in challenge play as Wave finished No. 6 in vballrecruiter.com’s final Top 50 National Rankings. “I have no regrets. That was the most fun tournament of any of my seasons,” Evens said. “We were undefeated until the challenge match and we went undefeated after that. We just had this vibe and were playing with so much passion and effort. We played the best volleyball of the entire season. It was so much fun. Everyone would stop and watch us play. It was the most incredible feeling.” Part of Wave’s run included beating eventual fifth-place finisher Drive Nation 17 Red, 35-33, 25-20, to close out the first round of pool play. The opening set of that contest was arguably the most entertaining one of the entire 10-day tournament in Chicago. “There is no other word to describe it other than fun,” Evens said. “You live for those games. I would so much rather play a team to 35 than to beat them 25-15. Especially a team like Drive Nation with so much hype and which was (the) No. 3 (seed) going in. We are an under-rated small team so it was so much fun.” With the high school season rapidly approaching, Evens’ focus has shifted. Along with her, Cathedral Catholic brings back 4-star senior middle Jenna Hanes (Michigan), 4-star senior setter Amanda Saeger (DePaul), 3-star senior outside Niki Egan (Washington beach) and 3-star junior outside Mae Kordas. While another national championship might be a stretch, together they should help Cathedral Catholic remain as one of the top programs in the country and capable of defending its California Open Division state title. The Dons are facing another challenging schedule, one that includes playing in two prestigious tournaments in Volleypalooza in Austin and the Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas. “We lost 10 seniors so that is a lot of loss,” Evens said. “Still, we have a couple of freshmen who I’m super excited about plus our returning players are absolute beasts so I’m super excited about it. We won’t be as big and as physical but we are still going to be super fun to watch. We have gotten together running high school camps. We are bonding and making new friendships. We haven’t talked too much about goals or results but we all have the same goal in that we want to win.” As our featured Player

We’re proud to be a part of an ongoing partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is sponsoring our Player of the Week award. We’ll be releasing a featured vballrecruiter.com Player of the Week, sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, on Tuesdays. Below is this week’s Player of the Week: Emma Parks. *** When it comes to our recent featured Player of the Week highlights sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, we have encountered athletes who have grown up either immersed in volleyball or ones who started late in the game and have blossomed quickly. What those two dynamics share in common however are all were in love with volleyball from their introduction to the sport. Emma Parks has a different tale. She didn’t grow up loving volleyball or falling in love with it at first sight. She was focused on playing basketball and determined to continue on as long and as far as she could in that sport. It’s not that she was totally opposed to volleyball. She spent her first year playing on a regional team in fourth grade. “I was definitely super into basketball growing up before I started volleyball,” Parks said. “I didn’t want (volleyball) to interfere with basketball when I first started. I transitioned to only playing volleyball in eighth grade.” Growing up participating in multiple sports brought out Parks’ competitive spirit. Having older sisters helped too, as they were also competitive and she would naturally challenge herself against them. While giving up basketball wasn’t easy, she did find herself drawn more and more to volleyball. “I think volleyball is really different than everything else,” she said. “Especially having new sets where you can win one set and then the next set is anyone’s game. That’s what’s really cool about it. You have to have team work and work as a team.” Parks started out as a middle blocker before spending this past season with Rock City 16-1 playing outside. Her position change started in high school last fall when her coach moved her to the pin and she remained on the left during club. At 6-1 and touching 10-feet, Parks is a rising 4-star recruit who is planning on suiting up for AVC Cle next club season. “I loved playing six rotations and being part of the game the whole time,” Parks said. “The biggest adjustment for me was passing. I didn’t have to pass as a middle. I stayed in to serve but came out for serve receive. So I just didn’t do that as a middle and that’s been the hardest adjustment for me.” This recent club season ended on a high note. Parks and her Rock City teammates earned the silver medal in 16 Club at the AAU Girls National Championships in Orlando. The squad went 13-1, falling to MVVC 16 Red in the gold-medal match. Rock City was the only opponent to take a set off of MVVC as Parks was selected to the AAU All-Star team for the division. “We played at Bluegrass and won the Club division,” Parks said. “Winning the tournament was really good for our team and we really started playing at a higher level.” Up next for Parks is her junior year of high school playing for Meadville. The switch from club to high school offers a different experience, one she enjoys just as much. “I think it’s different going to high school from club,” Parks said. “It’s different but really exciting. We are hoping to have a good season. We only had one senior last year so we are getting the whole team back. I’m really looking forward to it and hopefully winning district.” As our featured Player of the Week sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, we recently spoke with Parks about volleyball and more. Who is your role model or icon you look up to? Parks: I would say I look up to my sisters (Maddie and Hannah) the most. I spent a lot of time watching them play when I was younger. They are the ones who got me interested in the game. I learned a lot from them how hard they worked, how they played and how they responded when things got hard. They are my biggest supporters and they are really important to me. What is your favorite food(s)? Parks: My favorite food is mac and cheese. Specifically, my grandma’s mac and cheese. I love cooking with her. It’s super important to spend time with her. I feel like we have a family recipe in that nobody else makes it the same way. What is your favorite tournament of the season? Parks: My favorite tournament was AAUs. Going into it we were really excited. We got a house all together as a team. That was super fun to be with everyone. Competing at a high level against teams which are really good was fun. We finished pretty well. It was also our last tournament so I think that was fun. What is your favorite team bonding event? Parks: My favorite was when we were in Florida at AAUs. We got ice cream and then we came back to the house and went swimming. It was really fun. The water was really warm. What is your favorite quote? Parks: My favorite quote is by Simone Biles. It’s ‘I’d rather risk that it didn’t work out than the chances that I didn’t take at all.’ What is your go to song to warm up to? Parks: I don’t usually listen to music before games. In high school, we play music before games from our team playlist. If you could have any super power what would it be and why? Parks: I would want telekinesis like in Stranger Things. The main character El (Eleven) has it and it’s useful. I would like to use it in volleyball I guess or really anything. Life would be simpler and it would be really cool. What do you like to do outside of volleyball? Parks: I’d say I