Fort Bend Kempner vs. Ball – Top Performers
The high school volleyball season is underway in the state of Texas and we’ll try and be in as many matches as we can in order to bring the best coverage of the sport and all the info on the…
Access all of Prep Dig
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe high school volleyball season is underway in the state of Texas and we’ll try and be in as many matches as we can in order to bring the best coverage of the sport and all the info on the most promising prospects of the Lone Star State to you every week.
The idea is to do things a little bit differently this year, so after every match I attend, I’ll be posting a quick article highlighting the players that stood out the most in that particular encounter.
On Tuesday, September 6, our destination was the Fort Bend Kempner high school in Sugarland, where the Cougars hosted the Ball Lady Torns from Galveston for a non-district match. It was a close one, with tight sets, but the visitors won 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 25-17) to improve to 14-9 for the season. The hosts are now at 9-18 for the season.
Top Performers
Kate Lindamood
Kate Lindamood
The dynamic middle blocker was unstoppable at the net, scoring at ease from the middle and the left and giving no chance to Kempner’s blockers. Lindamood also thrived with her passing, sometimes receiving the serve and rushing to hit a first-tempo set down the middle. She did great from the service line too and ended the match with 13 kills, seven aces and three blocks. The middle blocker also featured in the most impressive play of the night, hammering an overpass straight down into Kempner’s court.
Sunny Higgins
Sunny Higgins
The high-energy libero was instrumental to the Lady Torns in a few different ways. Emotionally, she was always the one pushing her teammates forward and encouraging them in the most difficult moments. Higgins was stable with her passing all night and tallied 22 digs. She came up big in the most critical moments of the match, most notably at the end of the second set, when she had a long serving run that led to Ball’s comeback and hit from the backcourt (something she would repeat a few other times during the match) to scoring the final point.
Charli Dean
Charli Dean
Ball’s leading scorer for the season, Dean had her ups and downs during the match but deserves great credit for scoring in some of the most important moments of the match – it was her who scored the game-winning point on set one, for example. She did a great job in using her power and reach to overcome Kempner’s block and also played an important role on the backcourt, providing some stability with her passing and generating some important digs. Dean ended the match with ten kills and 19 digs.
Playing as an outside hitter, the physical Ochelli was Kempner’s best scoring option throughout the match. It took her a little while to get into a rhythm, but after she did it, she was nearly unstoppable, hitting the ball hard from the left, right and the backcourt. She had two really good shots from the left (one hitting sharp angle hard and the one sending the ball towards the corner) going on during the match, which kept Ball’s defenders guessing all night. Ochelli had some trouble with her ball control at times, but was the best player in her team because of her massive offensive contributions.
Highlights
Mackenzie Vaughan
Mackenzie Vaughan
A player with a big impact on a lot of what Kempner does on the court, Vaughan was pretty consistent with her actions throughout the match. She was intelligent with her ball distribution when setting and got to score a few points on offense with some smart, well-placed tips. Vaughan also did a very good job on defense and had a few good serving runs.