Fast Warm Up: The Liberos – 15 Open
Another weekend, another tournament. That’s how club volleyball goes in the state of Texas and us, at Prep Dig, strive to be in as many events as we can and watch every possible prospect in the Lone Star State. On…
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Continue ReadingAnother weekend, another tournament. That’s how club volleyball goes in the state of Texas and us, at Prep Dig, strive to be in as many events as we can and watch every possible prospect in the Lone Star State.
On December 11, our destination was the FAST Warm Up, one of the most traditional and prestigious season-opening events in the Houston Arena. The FAST Warm Up is a Mammoth of a tournament, reuniting 500 teams from 13 different divisions in five different venues in the region.
For this event, we targeted the 15 Open Division and spent the day at the Texas Tornados Club, where six of the ten teams competing in the division were playing. Over the next few days, we’ll feature some of the most interesting prospects we spotted and now it’s time to take a look at the liberos who did some backcourt wizardry on Saturday.
Maddie Dement – AVA TX 15 Adidas – HS: Pearland – 2025
Maddie Dement impresses for her mobility on the backcourt. The 5’2” defender is, of course, very quick, but is also very coordinated, putting her body always in great position to make contact with the ball when passing or digging. That comes from Dement’s background in gymnastics, which produced her tremendous lower body strength and body control. She’s also very technical and a defender who pays attention to every little detail of the game. Dement is also a good server and manages to create easy scoring opportunities for her team because of it. She was extremely successful in her first high school season with Pearland, producing 654 passes and 374 digs.
Daniella Miranda – AP 15 Adidas – 2025
One of the two liberos of the Austin Performance team in the tournament, Daniella Miranda left a good impression during the Fast Warm Up. She’s always connected with the game and aware of what’s going on in the match and does a great job in reacting to unexpected situations. Her great positioning is probably her best asset as a defender and it allowed her to dig several crosscourt hits from the left with relative ease during the event.
Magdalene Finnegan – Texas Tornados 15 Adidas – HS: Cinco Ranch – 2025
A talented 5’5” defender, Magdalene Finnegan fives Texas Tornados 15 Adidas a lot of stability on the court. Very reliable with her game, she also seems to have the right mindset for an athlete, not allowing for errors to let her down for too long – she just keeps playing. Finnegan is very accurate when delivering her passes to the setter and does a great job in tracking plays and keeping the ball up after a bad first contact from a teammate.