Saturday Night Stars

I've watched a few matches over the past few days but nothing quite matches the last 3 matches on Saturday night. Those included Wisconsin's Division 1 (Divine Savior Holy Angels vs Hamilton), Minnesota's Class AAAA (Champlin Park vs [program_tooltip program_id='430430' first='Lakeville' last='South']) and Class AAA (Alexandria vs Marshall) Championships. Let's take a look at some of the stars that were shining bright tonight!    Baldwin had me saying wow a LOT! Aside from her fast paced offense and ability to get all her hitters involved she has this super sneaky dump that she uses in the most perfect moments of chaos. As there is a ton of traffic by the net and lots of back and forth she will suddenly throw the ball across the court to the 5 corner. Her serve has been a weapon in itself and gave the Dashers some trouble.     Thull is a South Dakota State basketball commit but everything she swung at was gold on Saturday night. Whether she was taking a big swing or going to the deep corner with a tip it was scoring. On the defensive side she was making big plays as well as providing a huge attack option out of the back row.     Lechler creates so many issues at the net with her block alone. She can come in and attack from anywhere on the net and has great view of the court. Lechler took an approach into the middle and knew exactly what was open for the point.     Bjorklund is doing it and doing it so well. She's reading the attack so well on defense that she makes everything look like a freeball. Bjorklund was moving the ball around quickly and getting all of her attackers involved. Her blocking was outstanding and she was a key attack for Lakeville as well. Cross court, down the line, off the block, none of it was off limits for her.     Doherty was making some crazy defensive plays left and right all weekend long. Her energy and consistency on the first contact were a huge part of her success. Doherty's serve also proved to be a huge factor in taking teams off guard.     Gillingham is not just a steady and consistent distributor but she was making some defensive plays that may have saved the match for the Tigers in the 3rd set. I love when players can come in clutch in the high-pressure moments. Gillingham just stays so zoned in and focused on the task at hand.     If you are a part of the opposing fan base of Gilk you may not want to chant that she is over rated. First of all its rude because the player themself didn't decide to pull so much attention because they are really good. They just worked hard doing something they love. But the other reason is that you just get the beast worked up and she will respond with a resounding kill that almost puts a dent in the floor. And just to get her point across she will follow that with an ace just to make sure she got her point across.     I really love the versatility of Adler. She is a lefty but she's had to play a lot of middle over the past few years with teammates [player_tooltip player_id='191402' first='Carly' last='Gilk'] and Rease Axness taking up most of the time on the right pin. What she has done is really make the middle her own and found her strengths there. I love that it has resulted in her being such a force from anywhere on the net. And she can bring the heat from the endline and play some solid defense. Adler has lightning-quick reactions at the net and saves her team points.     Rossum does it all and as a lefty it makes her even more dangerous. She has the height to be a dangerous block and the strength to put some real pace on the ball. I love the pace she will run her offense with and the variety of attackers she will use.     Fahl plays an interesting position combo as a setter and middle hitter. She runs a terminal slide and poses a formidable block. She is super athletic and plays strong defense as well as gives her attackers a lot of opportunities to terminate the ball.     Drake is such an impressive player because she plays so much bigger than her stature. She is a gritty attacker who will find a way to score using a number of different tools. Drake also makes a number of really big defensive plays that ignite her teams energy.     Utecht was showing a great aptitude for adapting as the match went on. This match forced her to use more tools than I think she's had to use in a while. One of the most impressive things about Utecht is that even though it might have been super tense she just wasn't making errors and kept pushing the opposing defense.     Wagner was making some CRAZY digs in this match and reading attackers like a pro. She also did a great job of reading the ball off the pass/dig and making sure shes there with her feet to make her set from a neutral position and difficult to read.       Everyone knows Quest and everyone wants to dig her or block her so the pressure is on. She can attack from anywhere on the court and play some scrappy defense. Quest was a master of momentum when she got to the service line.     Zgonc was simply everywhere on the court. She was digging everything on the court and saving everything that was headed off the court. Zgonc kept her squad in so many rallies and allowed them to almost push DSHA to 5 sets.     Benshoof is one that you want up at the net in the 5th set and under pressure. She simply has a nose for the ball and has great timing for the block. Benshoof uses her attack attempts to work the defense and keep them guessing throughout the match.     She kept her team in system out of serve receive and made some great reads on the ball. Tingelhoff was diving everywhere and saving plays left and right. Almost the most important role was her energy and ability to hype her attackers up after a play.

I've watched a few matches over the past few days but nothing quite matches the last 3 matches on Saturday night. Those included Wisconsin's Division 1 (Divine Savior Holy Angels vs Hamilton), Minnesota's Class AAAA (Champlin Park vs Lakeville South ) and Class AAA (Alexandria vs Marshall) Championships. Let's take a look at some of the stars that were shining bright tonight!