More Pin Hitters to Follow from the Iowa Top 250 Expo
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We have a lot to cover from this one. Let’s get it started. I made two stops on the Prep Dig Top 250 Expo tour this weekend, and my first visit was to Club Ignit in Des Moines for our…
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Continue ReadingWe have a lot to cover from this one. Let’s get it started.
I made two stops on the Prep Dig Top 250 Expo tour this weekend, and my first visit was to Club Ignit in Des Moines for our Iowa showcase. This event brought back a lot of memories of Iowa athletes I had watched in this year’s club season, but it also exposed me to new names that I’ll be adding to my radar heading into 2023. Our pin hitter feature will cover players that fit either of these descriptions.
Chris Fitzgerald has already got the ball rolling with an All-Top 250 feature and a GameChangers spotlight. I’ll be building on those articles with a few of my own standouts, starting here with pin hitters!
Fittingly, we had plenty of Club Ignit heavy hitters in the Ignit gym last weekend. Sutcliffe was one of those standouts who put down balls with a ton of heat from the outside. After tallying nearly four kills per set for Norwalk this fall, Sutcliffe is bound for a similarly impactful club season in 2023.
Vondrak is one of several front-row hitters from this expo who can do a little bit of everything. She has experience at middle blocker, opposite, and can easily terminate on the left pin whenever needed. Her top-notch physicality made a big initial impression
Brandmeyer climbed way up Iowa’s kills leaderboard this fall–and she’s just a sophomore. Grand View Christian got a 350-kill season out of their underclassman pin hitter, and Brandmeyer used this expo to show how she’s so effective. When Brandmeyer is in rhythm, she can negate a well-formed block and find ways to score.
Highlights
Eike’s time to break out on the big stage is coming. This showcase allowed her to demonstrate her terminal swing on both pins, so it’s tough to say which side suits her best. Either way, Eike has the range and power to make a splash with IPVA and Ankeny next year.
This year’s Iowa Top 250 Expo was not my first chance to see McComas in live action, but the event certainly showed how much the Iowa City native has improved. McComas is a standout multi-sport athlete who brings an impressive medley of poise and leadership to the court. That has yielded plenty of impressive moments for the Little Hawks and Iowa Rockets , and I’ll surely have more to say about McComas once the club season gets rolling.
Highlights
Indianola has quite a left-side hitter to lean on. Nelsen has an uncanny ability to score in out-of-system situations, and that skill was particularly evident in Saturday morning’s expo. This electrifying sophomore just finished up an outstanding high school campaign in which she piled up nearly 400 kills. Nelsen is just getting started.
Now we’re getting into the freshmen. The Class of 2026 has a lot of unknowns, but we now know that Ouellette can put together a nice showcase performance at the outside hitter spot. We have a lot of Iowa 15s squads to keep an eye on next spring, and Ouellette will represent Iowa Select in that age group.
Schulte is another up-and-coming player to follow as we build a bigger picture on Iowa’s 2026s. The Prairie freshman showed a nice balance of assertive attacking and relentless defense throughout individual drills at Top 250.