H-Town Showdown #2 – 16s – The Liberos

<p>The second weekend of February had a lot of competition at the club level in the Houston area, with a handful of tournaments taking place around the city. One of them was the second stop of the H-Town Showdown.</p> <p>The event featured 77 club teams across its three divisions and they competed in three different venues in the area. Our destination was the FAST Complex, where 32 of the 44 teams from the 16s division hit the court on Saturday.</p> <p>We’ll highlight the top prospects we spotted in the tournament over the course of the week and this time we’ll feature the most promising liberos we saw in action:</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="124159" first="Alice" last="Volpe"] – HJV 16 Elite – HS: Bridgeland – 2024</strong></p> <p>Largely recognized as one of the best liberos in the state of Texas in her age group and ranked 16^th in our 2024 Prep Dig State Rankings, [player_tooltip player_id="124159" first="Alice" last="Volpe"] had a great display last weekend. A truly special defensive player, the 5’6” defender provided great stability in the backcourt for her Houston Juniors team. Volpe is one of the toughest defenders to beat in the entire state with her amazing combination of quickness and ball control and is also an excellent server. She was selected to our Prep Dig All-State in the last high school season, when she shined with 820 digs, 728 passes and 44 aces for her team Bridgeland.</p> <p><iframe src="//www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/15378359/62099e0ba018db0394f4dbc8" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Aleyna LeBlanc – AVA TX 16 Adidas – HS: Pasadena Memorial – 2024</strong></p> <p>A high-energy, high-efficiency player, Aleyna LeBlanc did a great job in AVA TX 16 Adidas’ backcourt during the event. She was outstanding in serve-receiving, not only by taking up a huge area of the court, but for passing dimes more often than not. The 5’4” LeBlanc is extremely technical and fast and there’s really not a ball she can’t get to. LeBlanc also stands out for her great serving ability and for being a very positive player on the court. She’s a high-producer at the high school level as well and delivered 472 digs, 567 passes and 74 aces for Pasadena Memorial last season.</p> <p><iframe src="//www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/14062129/6209913eb53f6e0fa0d5376b" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="179896" first="Sydney" last="Black"] – HJV 15 Elite – HS: Fulshear – 2025</strong></p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="179896" first="Sydney" last="Black"] is wise beyond her years and had grown accustomed to playing big roles in her team from a very young age. The 5’7” defender was a defensive rock for an HJV 15 Elite team that was playing against older opponents and performed extremely well. Her team had a lot of tall players and wouldn’t have been as successful without Black’s presence to things in good shape at the backcourt. Black is very technical and fast, but perhaps the most impressive aspect of her game is her attention to the details, especially at such a young age. She also had great trust from her high school team Fulshear, which slotted her in the starting lineup and moved star libero [player_tooltip player_id="87492" first="Ava" last="Underwood"] to setter. Black responded with 262 digs, 339 passes and 50 aces and took the team to a deep playoff run.</p> <p><iframe src="//www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/13629257/6208a11aa018db0394f3356d" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>