Florida Regional Qualifier Pt. 5: Middles

<p>In the last part of our series, I wanted to end with a position that doesn't the recognition for the role they play and the importance of that role. The middle position is one that is designated to mainly block and hit exclusively, but yet are such forces for their respective teams. The four prospects that I highlight in this piece distinguished themselves from their peers in either athleticism, skill, or both. </p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">[player_tooltip player_id='444425' first='Gracie' last='Newell']: DME UA Elite 17-1 (Class of 2024)</h2>   <p>Gracie is an aggressive attacker from the middle position utilizing space on different sets with the range to hit both line and angle. DME uses Gracie all around the court running 3-1's, slides, and the normal quick sets. When approaching the ball she does a great job closing on her last two steps and opening to the setter. Gracie uses both the push shot and full swings to keep the defense on their heels. She does an amazing job consistently transition off the net to be an option for her offense. Her footwork in transition and court awareness on what type of set to run allows the setter to run Gracie whether in transition or in receive. Her arm-swing is smooth and dynamic, reaching for a high contact point yet quick enough to drive the ball down to spots. Although her offense is impressive, her blocking is a close second. She puts up a big block and works hard going sideline to sideline. She's always working to close the block with her feet and uses her reach and height to take up space that her feet couldn't make up for. With the offensive repertoire combined with her effort and size of her block, Gracie is a forced to be reckoned with. </p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/avdpe3iqU6o </div></figure>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">[player_tooltip player_id='499540' first='Jamesyn' last='Haynes']: GP 16 Premier (Class of 2025)</h2>   <p>Jamesyn is a quick-twitch hitter with range from the middle position. The one skill that impressed me the most from Jamesyn has to be her blocking. Whether she's shutting down the opposing middle or closing to the pins, she has impeccable placement and timing. Her placement of blocks comes from her IQ of the game and her understanding of the situation she is in. For example, if the setter runs the opposing middle on a 1, Jamesyn does a great job of taking away a corner and pressing over hard and early. When you have good placement, timing, and hand work on your blocking, it makes opposing offenses work to set away or hit around her block. Her offense is just as impressive; swinging fast and high outside of the block with ease. She not only uses her fast arm, but mixes it up with pushes outside and over the block as well as using the block to tool through or out. When you give Jamesyn room to operate, she usually comes away with the kill. Being such a reliable asset from her team on both sides of the court shows why she was a standout for me. </p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">[player_tooltip player_id='490496' first='Lainie' last='Stapleton']: JAX Skyline 17 Royal (Class of 2024)</h2>   <p>Standing at 6'4", Lainie uses her height and length to swing high over or around the block as well as putting up a huge block against opposing hitters. Although not the fastest player, she uses her size and IQ to take advantage on both sides of the court. Lainie's prowess comes from her blocking because of the sheer height over the net while pressing onto the other side of the court. Unless the other team tricks her, which is rare, she's forcing opposing hitters to go away from her. When they do test her block, it comes with a point and a block for Lainie. Offensively she makes great decisions on how to hit around the block to a good spot on the court. She uses all of the traditional middle sets like Gracie to create space for her offense and create holes for her to take advantage of. She plays with a ton of awareness as on film and in person it was apparent that she can read the block across from her and still get a good swing on the ball even if her timing is off. The ability to adjust to sets not only with timing but contorting her body to get her arm in good position to swing was also impressive. Lainie is a traditional big and tall middle prospect with the skills and awareness that sets her a part from her competition. </p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Zion Boakai: Upontop 15 Elite (Class of 2026)</h2>   <p>Zion is the definition of a bouncy and quick athlete. Her offense uses her athleticism all around the court running both middle sets, right-side sets, and outside-hitter sets. She's the type of athlete that can jump, wait in the air while reading the court, then swing at her peak. Being able to run the types of sets she runs with her athleticism allows her to use her core to rotate through the ball both down the line and in the angle. At her age to have the range she has is impressive; the ability to hit hard with that range is what's the mot impressive especially at her age. Most middles at her age are very specialized yet Zion has all of the necessary skills on the offensive end to play any position. Watching her play against OPU at FL Regionals really showed me how much of a force Zion was on offense, but even more daunting on defense. The quickness she uses to swing are the same she uses to close the block or press over the net early and hard. She was consistently forcing the middles for OPU to hit around her or to use shots because anytime the ball hit her block, the ball went down. Overall, Zion is an impressive athlete with the skills to take advantage of that athleticism.</p>   <p>The amount of athleticism shown throughout the classes in the middle position was impressive, to say the least. The skill combined with that athleticism is what put these 5 prospects apart from the rest. As the coverage for this last qualifier ends, it only entices me more to see what there is to come from the rest of the AAU and USAV season. </p>

In the last part of our series, I wanted to end with a position that doesn't the recognition for the role they play and the importance of that role. The middle position is one that is designated to mainly block and hit exclusively, but yet are such forces for their respective teams. The four prospects that I highlight in this piece distinguished themselves from their peers in either athleticism, skill, or both.