Upcoming Club Season for 2019 Class

The class of 2019 is stacked with talent and this club season is vital for those who look to play at the next level. The top ten prospects of the PrepDig rankings are spread out in regards to club teams, so we could see a highly competitive line up of matches this spring. 

VCN-

Kyla Swanson, Illinois commit and #1 ranked prospect will enter her second season at VCN along with Kelsie Cada of Bishop Neumann. Both players contributed to a 5th place finish last year in the open division of AAU Nationals. Swanson is coming off of a C-1 State Championship and finished the season with 328 kills and an impressive .488 hitting percentage. Cada had 378 kills and hit .329 for the Cavaliers.

Nebraska Elite-

Emma Grunkemeyer, Iowa commit from Millard North, played last year at Elite with Lily Heyne of Skutt, Emily Bressman of Omaha Marian, and Jordan McCormick of Millard West. Their team finished 18th in the open division of AAU Nationals in 2017. Grunkemeyer led the Mustangs to a second place finish in the Class A State Tournament while Heyne led her team to a Class B State Championship with 341 kills on the season and a .351 hitting percentage. Bressman finished with 428 kills and McCormick had 132 digs and 116 kills on the season.

Premier-

Last season, Jaiden Centeno, Millard West libero, and Sami Clarkson of Omaha Concordia competed for Premier 16 Gold who finished 7th at USAV Nationals. Centeno averaged 16.5 digs per set for the Wildcats and finished with a total of 495 digs on the season. Clarkson finished with 1096 assists and 11.5 assists per set. The combo of these two highly skilled ball handlers will make Premier a tough team to compete against.

Nebraska Juniors–

Mara LeGrand, setter of Papillion-LaVista South, played on the Nebraska Juniors 161 team last spring and Megan Woods of GICC played up on the 171 team. LeGrand’s team finished 29th in the open division of AAU Nationals and Woods’ team placed 29th in the 17s open division of AAU Nationals. LeGrand finished the high school season with 915 assists as the Titans were defeated in the semi final round of the Class A State Championships. Woods led the Crusaders to a second place finish in C-1 with 483 kills and a .401 hitting percentage.

If these athletes stay at the same club as last year, they will be some of the top competitors for their teams this spring. VCN had the highest finish of the area clubs last season and will look to make a push for an even high finish this year as it is possible they will have Kalynn Meyer, class of 2020 UNL commit, playing up on the 17s team, making them even more competitive. There are some impressive combinations of liberos, setters, and attackers on each club team, then add in the sheer number of reps each athlete will have over the course of the next 6 months and we could be seeing some new players jump into the top ten list of recruits as well as college commitments from more 2019 players.