2022 State Ranking Stock Risers – August Update Vol 2

We are proud of our new update to the 2022 Class. We have covered these young ladies for a year now and have had so many factors to consider when deciding who should be where in the State Rankings. It is definitely not an easy task, but it is something that incites passion when discussing positions, teams, abilities, team finishes in tournaments, head to head matchups, and a list of other things we take into consideration. In the end all of these players deserve to be on our State Ranked List and we are very proud to share them with you. We will be profiling players who were previously ranked in the state, but through great play, they made some serious moves up the rankings. Without further ado, here are a few players who moved up:   [player_tooltip player_id="87492" first="Ava" last="Underwood"] [2022] 5-6 Libero (HS: Fulshear/Club: Houston Skyline/Verbal: Texas A&M) Ava is now ranked as the 24th best overall prospect and the top libero in the 2022 Class according to our Prep Dig State Rankings. We have profiled her numerous times on our website and here is a little from one of the articles, “She is verbally committed to Texas A&M. Ava constantly keeps her feet moving before the hitter contacts the ball putting herself in the best position to react to the attack. She covers a lot of ground when the hitter goes away from her. She extends her range very well. On a hard driven ball, she collapses so well to keep a soft contact. She also received All-State honors last year for Fulshear. Coach Gotcher says that Ava is everything a great libero should be as she is intense, quick, vocal, and diverse. Her natural instincts are remarkable, but the work she puts in every day is what pushes her over the top. She loves the grind and will go all out, whether we are warming up for a Monday morning practice or competing in the state championship. She is one of the Chargers’ team captains and is considered the heart of their team.” We watched her play in person this summer at USA Junior Nationals in Vegas and we were extremely impressed with her overall abilities. Seeing her consistency on the court against the best teams in the nation catapulted her into being named as the best libero in the state of Texas in our eyes during this update. Consistently over the course of the entire four days of play she routinely kept her team in-system with her serve receive and phenomenal defensive play. We are excited to cover her senior season. Please congratulate her on the achievement of being named the top libero in the 2022 class in the state of Texas.     [player_tooltip player_id="87487" first="Fallon" last="Thompson"] [2022] 6-0 Outside (HS: Grand Oaks/Club: Houston Juniors/ Verbal: Gonzaga University) Miss Thompson has moved up from being ranked as the 20th top prospect to now being the 17th top overall prospect and the 6th best outside in the 2022 class according to our State Rankings. We have profiled her a few times and here is a little of what we stated, “Fallon is a powerful and exciting player to coach and watch. She is extremely competitive and brings her best every time she steps on the court. She has a heavy arm and a great jumping ability, but is also able to mix her shots up and score using finesse. Her ball control is continually improving, and she has an aggressive serve that can score 3-4 quick points each time she serves. Fallon commands the ball and has confidence about her that is undeniable. She loves high-pressure situations, and handles them better than most sophomores. She plays and competes hard, and expects that of others around her. As a sophomore, she was the District 20-5A MVP, earned Academic All-District, TGCA 5A All-State Team, Montgomery County Co-Offensive Player of the Year, TAVC 5A All-State Team, GHVCA 5A Newcomer of the Year, All-Greater Houston Newcomer of the Year, Vype 5A All-State Second Team, and PrepVolleyball Soph 79 Highest Honorable Mention. She followed all of that up with a junior season where she added to a career total of 848 kills, 61 blocks, 362 digs, and an astonishing 144 aces. She has committed to Gonzaga University and will be a game changer for them in a few years. Meanwhile she will continue to work on her craft and only get better to excel at the next level. Please help us congratulate her on a wonderful accomplishment of realizing her dream of playing college volleyball.“ Grand Oaks head volleyball coach Morgan Rogers tells me that Fallon is fantastic to coach. She is a great leader for her program and such a good role model for other younger players. Grand Oaks has a great shot to compete at a high level again this year and a huge part of it is due to the heavy arm and overall play of Miss Thompson. We saw her play in person this summer at GJNC and she is a joy to watch. This is why we have chosen to move her up in the rankings. Stay tuned to see how she performs during her senior season.   [player_tooltip player_id="99507" first="Jordan" last="Gamble"] [2022] 6-2 Middle (HS: Katy/Club: Houston Skyline/Verbal: Northwestern State) Jordan has moved up six spots in the rankings with this update. She is now ranked as the 37th best overall prospect and the 9th top middle for the 2022 class in the state of Texas according to our Prep Dig State Rankings. In our previous article we wrote the following, “The Katy High School middle is a force to be reckoned with. Standing at six foot two, she is a gamer. She excels at all levels and tempos regularly hitting a high tempo out of serve receive on the left and she scores at will there. She runs all quick tempos out of the middles as well and she does a great job with the timing. She hits with a lot of power right out of the setter’s hands. She is a true prototypical middle for a college program. I’m excited to cover her for the next couple of years. She has a bright future ahead of her. “ Jordan did not disappoint this past high school season as she helped her varsity Katy team to a wonderful 19-4 overall record and a 10-2 district record. In only two years on varsity, she has amassed 474 kills, hit a whopping .324 hitting percentage, and had 181 blocks. She is a true stopper at the net and takes up so much space against her opponents. She will truly help a college program in the future if someone takes notice now. She also plays for Skyline and they are one of the top teams in their age group. We have been following them closely and Jordan is doing great. We are watching her growth on the court and couldn’t be more proud of her. Stay tuned to see what she does next.” We definitely stayed tuned and were able to watch her team in person in the Open Division of USA Junior Nationals in Vegas this summer. She did not disappoint as we watched her amazing blocking abilities. One of the best aspects is how she patrols the net and even if she doesn’t get the block, she is able to scare the opposing attacker into hitting around her. We as coaches call this funneling the attack exactly where we are setting up our digger in the back row. Her transition game is one aspect that we know attracted Northwestern State to come calling for her, as she is able to stop on a dime and drive hard toward her setter. She recently committed to their program and will be a great asset to their squad next year. In the meantime, her Katy team has a solid chance to be a contender this season and we will be watching closely.     Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite athletes. If you have anyone you think we should watch out for, please shoot me an email with some info at nov8vb@yahoo.com. Also don’t forget to help these kids get more exposure by sharing our stories with your friends. Help us help them by simply retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook. Thanks for following Texas Family!