Scouting The WCNQ: Breaking Down 18 Open Pools 5-8

Pools are out, and bids are ready to be awarded. The West Coast is ready to invade Chicagoland, but there are plenty of Midwest teams who are looking to defend their home turf. I will be in attendance in Schaumburg getting a glimpse of some of the top athletes in the country. Next year, many of these athletes will already have their first year of college volleyball under their belt. They are big names in the making. Let's scout out Pools 5-8 to round out the field.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1613215376879263744?s=20 </div></figure>   Pool 5    Top Select 18 Elite   Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite   VC United 181 Elite   L2 181   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1578536528405405696?s=20 </div></figure>   We have teams from Florida, Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan competing in pool five.  Top Select is a top 25 club out of Orlando and have produced some big time college players.  This years team will feature some strong commits as well as high academic in Olivia Fenoff (North Alabama), Elmy Negron (West Florida), Kindall Welker (Brown), and Ava Wallis (Northeastern). Rockwood Thunder out of the St. Louis area will use their strong ball control to keep teams off balance with two big time libero/ds athletes in [player_tooltip player_id='102557' first='Ava' last='Roth'] (Arkansas) and [player_tooltip player_id='102552' first='Madison' last='Smith'] (Illinois).  [player_tooltip player_id='102554' first='Juliette' last='Myrick'] can do it all as a setter and she will head to Army-West Point.  VC United will make the short trip from Rockford, Illinois to Schaumburg where they will have plenty of balance on this year's 181 Elite squad.  [player_tooltip player_id='138665' first='Kylie' last='Schulze'] runs the show as a setter where she will head to Loyola-Chicago where one of her key targets on the outside will be Southeast Missouri commit [player_tooltip player_id='138667' first='Lucy' last='Arndt'] who is coming off a state title this fall.  L2 is a program on the rise out of Michigan where their commander of the defense and the team is one of the top liberos in the nation is [player_tooltip player_id='66295' first='Allison' last='Berent'] who will head to Alabama.    Pool 6   Sunshine 18 LA    Absolute 18 Black    Sky High Adidas 18 Elite   NPJ 18 Forefront   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1515331608013938691?s=20 </div></figure>   This could be a really interesting pool.  Sunshine 18 LA has four athletes in the Prep Dig Top 150 with two big time commits heading to Pitt with [player_tooltip player_id='159523' first='Torrey' last='Stafford'] and Olivia Babock.  They are electric attackers.  Absolute 18 Black will come out of Northern California where one of their key attackers will be Emma McDermott at 6'3 who will stay in-state and play for UCSB.  Sky High Adidas is the local squad where they have some pieces that when healthy can really surprise some teams. [player_tooltip player_id='138663' first='Campbell' last='Paris'], the South Carolina commit, was out this fall with an injury, but is a 6'4 pin on this squad.  [player_tooltip player_id='222506' first='Allyson' last='Panzloff'] is an attacker who can do it all in the frontline and she will head to Brown - she provides a ton of spark to the court.  The one who runs the show is gritty setter, [player_tooltip player_id='138664' first='Maggie' last='Duyos'], the Austin Peay commit who knows how to win at a high level.  The team I'm really excited to see is NPJ 18 Forefront from the Pacific Northwest.  They have some big time prospects on this team who could pack a punch and get into the gold pools on day two.  [player_tooltip player_id='201009' first='Alex' last='Acevedo'], the Oregon commit has reclassified to the Class of 2023 and will be a huge point scorer for this club.     <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1578530594816135169?s=20 </div></figure>   Pool 7    Wave 18-Julianna   Metro 18 Travel    USANY Fortitude    <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1515314783196696578?s=20 </div></figure>   Wave out of Del Mar, California will absolutely be in the hunt for a bid and will be in a lot of huge matches this season. [player_tooltip player_id='161445' first='Julia' last='Blyashov'], the Stanford commit highlights this roster, but the key to this team will be their length and balance with athletes such as Lily Dwinell (Colorado), Kat Lunz (UCLA), Eva Rohrbach (Maryland), and Auburn Tomkinson (Texas). They will bring a lot of physicality and power. Metro out of the DC Area always has teams in the hunt for open bids and this team is no different. [player_tooltip player_id='181185' first='Brielle' last='Kemavor'] (BYU), [player_tooltip player_id='181099' first='Sydney' last='Bryant'] (Maryland), and [player_tooltip player_id='181097' first='Safi' last='Hampton'] (North Carolina) will be the key attackers for Metro where they will attack teams with their high level athleticism.   Pool 8    Adversity G18 Adidas   <figure class="wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="https://prepdig.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2022/09/Catherine-Burke-scaled.jpg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-226584" width="431" height="287" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">[player_tooltip player_id='225752' first='Catherine' last='Burke']</figcaption></figure>   Legacy 18-1 Adidas   JJVA 18 Teal    This is a gauntlet when it comes to these three teams and the talent they have as well as the high level commits.  They will have to play a crossover with pool seven which could make things interesting when it comes to advancing to gold pools for day two.  Adversity is out of the Chicago area where they have a full roster of D1 commits.  [player_tooltip player_id='225752' first='Catherine' last='Burke'] will be a middle teams will need to slow down, she's heading to Penn State.  When she goes to the backrow, in comes [player_tooltip player_id='222468' first='Avary' last='DeBlieck'] who provides a lot of physicality.  She will play for Loyola-Chicago who is coming off an A10 Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance.  Legacy 18-1 Adidas will have a core that is accustomed to having top prospect Harper Murray on the outside, she is off to Nebraska and some new athletes will be relied upon to keep Legacy competing at a high level.  [player_tooltip player_id='66330' first='Ella' last='Schomer'] and [player_tooltip player_id='66314' first='Kennedy' last='Louisell'] are new athletes to join Legacy. Schomer is a left right side who can play a little backrow, she's heading to Wofford.  Louisell is absolutely electric and can score from the outside, she's going to UNC Greensboro. JJVA is out of Jacksonville, Florida where they will bring a roster full of college talent.  The one who will conduct the offense is setter, Veronica Sierzant who will be playing her college volleyball at Syracuse.

Pools are out, and bids are ready to be awarded. The West Coast is ready to invade Chicagoland, but there are plenty of Midwest teams who are looking to defend their home turf. I will be in attendance in Schaumburg getting a glimpse of some of the top athletes in the country. Next year, many of these athletes will already have their first year of college volleyball under their belt. They are big names in the making. Let's scout out Pools 5-8 to round out the field.