Top Liberos Across Texas Volume 2

Its time for some Libero Love!!! Attackers get all of the love and all of the credit for the point to be scored, but any true volleyball aficionado knows that a good pass must occur first. Have you ever heard of the “No Pass, No Play” rule? Well it usually refers to passing your classes or you wont get to play on your team, but every coach has said this to his or her team before. If you can’t pass the ball, you can’t run an offense. This is the fundamental truth in volleyball. That is why every talented team needs their talented Liberos in serve receive and in defense. In our last article about Liberos, we stated the usual superlatives that are used to describe the Liberos in this article like Fiery, Tenacious, Energetic, Quick, Relentless, etc. The following young ladies are some of the best to do it in Texas across all classes that we have not written about yet.   [caption id="attachment_91669" align="alignright" width="246"] Photo Credit: SportsRecruits - Alamo[/caption] [player_tooltip player_id="87398" first="Maddie" last="Correa"] [2021] 5-5 Libero (HS: Reagan/Club: Alamo/Verbal: Texas Tech) Maddie comes in ranked as our 10thbest prospect in the state according to our Prep Dig State Rankings. She has helped lead her Reagan team to a deep run in the state playoffs. She is the top libero for a perennial powerhouse program. She is always in the right place at the right time it seems like. This means her ability to read the opposing teams offense is on point. Setter dumps don’t stand a chance anywhere near her zone in left back. Watching her for just a few minutes will show you why she is one of the top liberos in the class of 2021. We are expecting great things from Maddie during her senior season.   [caption id="attachment_91670" align="alignleft" width="242"] Photo Credit: SportsRecruits - TAV[/caption] [player_tooltip player_id="87400" first="Callie" last="Kemohah"] [2021] 5-6 Libero (HS: Lovejoy/Club: Texas Advantage/Verbal: Oklahoma) Callie comes in as the 12thranked prospect in her 2021 class according to our State Rankings. Her resume is littered with accolades from almost every volleyball publication there is. Even as a young 14/15 year old player she helped her team win an Open National Championship at USA Volleyball Nationals. That success has not stopped. She is one reason her Lovejoy high school program has also enjoyed success like winning the 6A State Championship last year. She is the top libero for one of the best high school programs and one of the best club programs in the country. I think its safe to say she’s pretty good. This is why she will star for Oklahoma in a few years in the Big 12 conference. Get to know her name if you don’t know it already. She is a dominant force in the back row. Being a true coach at heart, I personally love the way she holds her form after contact in both serve receive and while digging. It is textbook technique. She has been trained very well at TAV.   [caption id="attachment_91671" align="alignright" width="260"] Photo Credit: SportsRecruits - Austin Skyline[/caption] [player_tooltip player_id="87506" first="Ireland" last="McCauley"] [2022] 5-5 Libero (HS: Vandergrift/Club: Austin Skyline) Ireland comes in ranked as the 41stbest prospect in the state of Texas in the 2022 class. She is the 4thbest libero in her class, which is littered with phenoms in this position. Ireland has some of the best reflexes I have seen in a while. They are lightning quick for any age/class. Her hand-eye coordination is second to none. Being a student of the game, I could watch her play the position solely on defense for hours. I’ve seen some attackers absolutely unload on a set and while all eyes are trying to find the ball after its hit, Ireland says, “NOPE! Not today ma’am”. She uses emergency techniques so well like she trains them consistently. I would love to see her training regimen on these skills. I can’t say enough about this kid. She is uncommitted as of now but I will be saying her name to a lot of college coaches. Her range is superb, her platform touch on the ball is amazing, and her tenacity to pursue a ball is astounding. Put this kid on your short list NOW!!!   [caption id="attachment_91672" align="alignleft" width="249"] Photo Credit: SportsRecruits - TAV[/caption] [player_tooltip player_id="99512" first="Kayla" last="Manio"] [2022] 5-6 Libero (HS: Allen/Club: Texas Advantage) Kayla comes in ranked as the 55thbest prospect in the state according to our rankings. She plays with one of the best programs in the country at TAV. Most people think its so easy to play defense around such great blockers that TAV has, but actually it has its own issues. It is a blessing because the block usually funnels the attack to a certain area. But actually what it does a majority of the time is causes a lot of deflections off of the block and the libero is usually the one who has to read the angles and then change their direction in an instant to pursue the ball. Kayla does this with great precision. She is very poised during the point of contact so she can push off if need be to pursue the ball. She covers her hitter phenomenally also. Every hitter gets blocked from time to time. It is awesome to have a libero like Kayla behind you so you can swing away without hesitation. This young lady will be scooped up by a college in no time.   Here were just a few Liberos we wanted to mention. Stay tuned for our next volume of awesome defenders in all classes because the State has quite a few. If you have any other defensive dynamos we should be covering, please feel free to drop me a note with their information at nov8vb@yahoo.com.