Spike Sport #6: The Promising Setters
Last weekend ranked high up there among the busiest in the current club season with a handful of hugely important tournaments going on around the country, including National Qualifiers in Indiana and Washington. These events drew several top teams from…
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Continue ReadingLast weekend ranked high up there among the busiest in the current club season with a handful of hugely important tournaments going on around the country, including National Qualifiers in Indiana and Washington.
These events drew several top teams from Texas away from the Lone Star State for the weekend, which gave us to watch some teams that normally fly under-the-radar in action in the tournaments that were going on in the Houston area.
Our choice was the Spike Sport #6, which reunited 11 teams from the 17s age group for a single day of competition in Missouri City. We’ll highlight the players that stood out over the course of the week, starting with the setters.
Liberty Scoggins – TX Legacy 17 National – HS: Klein Collins – 2024
Liberty Scoggins stood out as one of the most skilled and creative setters in the tournament. She did a tremendous job with the balls in her hands, combining a well-diversified ball distribution and impressive consistency. Scoggins is very dynamic on the court and infects her teammates with her positive attitude. She also proved to be a very good server, having a few good runs from the service line during the day, and a threat to score with her setter dumps.
Kendall Stark – H Skyline 17 White – HS: Belville – 2023
Kendall Stark has her reliability as her main asset on the court. The playmaker has excellent size at 5’10” and plays great defense, but what makes a player coaches will look at is that everyone knows exactly what to expect from her – and that she will deliver it. Stark has a very clean touch on the ball and runs a somewhat simple offensive system, strongly relying on her main hitters, but being extremely precise and consistent with her locations.
Abigail Whitehead – Texas Diamonds 17 Black – 2024
Abigail Whitehead’s good combination of size and quickness on the court help her tremendously when operating out-of-system. The playmaker does a great job in tracking passes and quickly moving toward them and is always in a good position to set. She’s one of those setters who can precisely set any of her hitters from anywhere on the court. Whitehead has a very good all-around game too, as she’s a very efficient defender, a good blocker and a tremendous server.
Julia Valverde – Texas Twisters 17 Royal – HS: Seven Lakes – 2023
A very talented setter from the Katy area, Julia Valverde masters nearly all aspects of the game. The 5’8” ballhandler is excellent in running her team’s offensive system as she’s not only very technical and intelligent, but can also set against the flow with ease. Valverde is very intelligent on the court and that reflects in the smart, split-second decisions she makes. She’s also a very good server and blocker.
Taylor Jeffcoat – Sporting Edge – 17 Armour – 2024
Taylor Jeffcoat was the centerpiece of Sporting Edge – 17 Armour and because of that, her duties with the team went well beyond setting. She has good size and a very complete game, which allowed her to help her team in a lot of different ways. While on the backcourt, Jeffcoat was an intelligent and efficient setter. At the net, she used her technique to score points as a hitter, often hitting around or tooling blocks that stood in front of her.