Rankings Breakdown: 2020

PrepDig’s top-ranked Minnesota player in the Class of 2020, Waconia’s Kali Wolf, recounts one of her favorite memories as playing volleyball with her sisters. That must be one heck of a backyard game in the Wolf household.
Kali, a rising sophomore at Waconia, is already a powerful 6-foot-1 and had 230 kills as a freshman with the Wildcats. She has great velocity and power on her attacks and also is a key passer. But she’s still trying to catch up to her two older sisters, Jessica Wolf (a 2015 Waconia graduate) and Taylor Wolf (a 2017 grad).

All three sisters have played for Northern Lights’ top-level teams. Kali is on the Northern Lights 15-1 team, whereas both Taylor and Jessica finished up on the Northern Lights 17-1 team before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Jessica is a 6-foot-2 junior outside hitter for the Phoenix and Taylor is a 6-foot-2 freshman setter.

After starting in Minnesota, the family lived in Temecula, California for two years in the early 2010s before returning home when oldest sister Jessica was in eighth grade. That turned out to be a welcome return for Waconia and the Northern Lights JO club. Jessica talked to the StarTribune’s Jim Paulsen three years ago when she was a senior, mentioning that one of the main differences between the two states was that in Minnesota, her teams trained as a unit rather than as individuals, as in California.

Other highlights from the initial Class of 2020 rankings:

Pack mentality

Speaking of the surname Wolf (or Wolfe or Wolff as the case may be), there seems to be a pack of them in our Class of 2020 rankings. In addition to Waconia’s Kali Wolf at No. 1, Lakeville North’s Halle Wolfe is ranked No. 18 and Jackson County Central’s Alaina Wolff is ranked No. 44. Halle Wolfe is a 5-foot-4 libero for the Panthers and M1 16-1, while Alaina Wolff is a 5-foot-6 outside hitter for the Huskies and Kairos Elite 18 Adidas.

Watch out for Rebels

As it does in the Class of 2019 rankings, Champlin Park has a host of elite players in our initial Class of 2020 rankings. Six-foot middle Hannah Prasky is the highest ranked Rebel at No. 11, but she has two other teammates in the top-20 with 5-foot-10 middle Sami Hilley at No. 13 and 5-foot-9 outside hitter Jordan Staples at No. 19.

If the name Hilley sounds familiar, it’s because Sami is the younger sister of 2016 Miss Volleyball winner Sydney Hilley. Even with her graduation and the loss of coach John Yunker to an assistant’s position at the University of North Dakota, last year’s Class AAA state runners-up should be strong for the foreseeable future. In fact, Yunker might just be knocking on his former players’ doors in a few years.

Click here to view the 2020 rankings!