Ten UA Next Freshmen to Recruit

<a href="https://prepdig.com/subscribe/" id="https://prepdig.com/subscribe/">This article was shared with 150+ college coaches. Join PrepDig with 30% off using code: Coachable247</a>   Every UA Next Camp brings together middle schoolers from different clubs, different states, and different coaching systems, then asks them to compete without the safety net of their usual team. There's no familiar setter to find automatically, no libero they've passed to a hundred times, no shorthand built over a season together. That environment reveals something pool play with a home club rarely does: how quickly an athlete can communicate with strangers, trust unfamiliar teammates, and find a role inside a brand new system.   For scouts, that's the real value of a camp like this one. It isn't really testing whether a player can hit a ball hard. It's testing whether she can adapt, lead, and stay composed when everything around her is unfamiliar, which is exactly what awaits every one of these athletes as they step into high school volleyball this fall.   The ten players featured below reflected on their UA Next experience in their own words, and those words say a lot about who they're becoming, not just as hitters and setters, but as competitors preparing for their next level. Some found their voice as leaders in a room full of strangers. Some are learning that confidence has to keep growing as the game speeds up. Others discovered that the loudest swing isn't always the smartest one. Meet the incoming freshmen.    Camille Day spent her 13u season as a middle, which meant out-of-system hitting simply wasn't part of her game yet. This year, playing outside, she's had to build that skill from scratch, putting in the reps to develop timing and control when the pass isn't perfect. She credits a simple sequencing cue, going slow to fast, along with clean hand contact and swinging with purpose to the corners, for the progress she's made.   Camille's in-system hitting was already a strength, and she points to finding good timing and contact during 6v6 as the moment her confidence and connection with her new UA Next teammates really clicked. But it's the out-of-system growth that shows she's building a complete offensive game rather than leaning on one strength. Heading into high school as an outside, she's already looking at the other half of the position, working on reading the defense and getting into position to cover, the kind of two-way commitment college staffs notice.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Evelyn Anderson was thinking about her teammates before she was thinking about herself at UA Next. She took on the job of directing players she'd never shared a court with, calling out attacking spots and serving zones with enough confidence that her hustle and defensive effort became just as noticeable as her voice. That instinct, making sure everyone around her knows where they need to be, connects directly to what she says the camp clarified for her: that competing at a higher level isn't only about individual skill, it's about lifting the players next to you.   On the technical side, her serve receive has taken a real step forward this season. A coaching cue to open up her body when a serve comes at her chest has changed how she handles chaotic, fast-arriving balls, and it shows in her passing now, more control, more accuracy, more balls landing on target even when the situation isn't clean. Heading into high school, she's pointing herself at two things that tend to grow together, getting more aggressive as an attacker and sharpening her footwork into the ball, while continuing to build the consistency that turns a promising game into a trusted one.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Alyssa Parran was a 13 year old competing on a 15s team heading into UA Next, and that gap shows up in the most useful way in her game. Offensively, she trusted her swing and stayed aggressive, but the real growth this season has been learning that scoring isn't only about hitting the ball as hard as she can. Placing it in the right spot, reading the block, and making the smarter play have become just as important to her as power, and that shift has made her a more complete attacker.   The feedback she received from the camp director stuck with her for a reason. He told her that her communication, enthusiasm, teamwork, sportsmanship, and leadership were the qualities that would carry her to higher levels, and specifically told her not to change the energy she brings to the court. He also gave her something concrete to work on: getting her left arm up during her approach to maximize her jump and hitting power. She's already back in the gym on that correction, which says as much about her coachability as the original feedback says about her ceiling. Her plan from here is broad and specific at once, developing into a true six rotation outside who can pass, defend, and attack at a high level, while continuing to grow as a leader her teammates can count on.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Layla Marquez came out of UA Next pointing to her communication and leadership as the parts of her game that carried her, along with hitting and serving she felt good about all camp. She's already thinking about how the game changes as players get older and faster, and she's clear that confidence isn't something a player builds once and keeps, it's something that has to grow alongside the competition. That's a mature read for a middle schooler to have, and it lines up with where she's pointing her development next. She named volleyball IQ as the piece she wants to keep building, with a simple reason behind it: once the IQ is there, she believes everything else in her game follows it.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Gia Bella Ellis plays with power, and she makes it clear that power is backed by real physical development. Her vertical jump has been the standout improvement of her season, and she connects it directly to nearly every other part of her offensive game, getting on top of the ball, creating sharper angles, and scoring against bigger blockers she wouldn't have beaten a year ago. She specifically points to her ability to reach and finish line shots consistently as a recent area of growth, a shot that requires both the elevation and the touch she's been building.   Her read on the UA Next competition was direct: with that much talent in one gym, effort and confidence were what actually separated players from each other. That's already shaping her offseason. She's treating this summer as strength and conditioning time, building her body so she can handle a demanding high school season at full power, while continuing to sharpen her defense and overall quickness. It's a plan built by an athlete who already understands that talent gets you into the gym, but preparation is what lets you dominate once you're there.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Reagan Senda plays for a club on the island of Oahu, which meant UA Next handed her something she hadn't experienced before, a gym full of unfamiliar teammates from outside her usual volleyball world. She'd always thought of herself as a leader for her own team, but leading a group of strangers turned out to be a different, harder skill, and she came away from the camp with real growth in both her leadership and her communication, from directing sets to calling for help the moment a pass got shaky.   Ask her what "being a setter" means and she'll tell you it's never just about setting the ball. For Reagan, the position is communication, effort, and leadership rolled into every rotation, and she credits her club's tournament schedule with sharpening all of it at once, running the offense, connecting with her passers, and finding her own offensive touches along the way. Confidence, more than anything else, is what she says made the difference competing off island: once a player has it, the leadership, the communication, and the effort tend to follow close behind.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Taylor Saga found her footing at UA Next through defense. Playing DS and libero in a gym full of new faces, she leaned on her ability to read and dig balls, and the supportive atmosphere around her let her play as freely as she would with her own team. She specifically remembers the energy in the gym pushing everyone to be louder, which made the whole experience more fun and, by her own account, made her a better competitor in the moment.   Camp reinforced something less about mechanics and more about mindset for Taylor: move on quickly, correct fast, and let the next rally matter more than the last one. That next ball mentality shows up in how she talks about her defensive reads, which have improved noticeably this season as she's gotten better at picking up attackers before contact. She's chasing more of that same recognition going forward, specifically the consistency of reading the opposing offense well enough that she already knows what's coming before it happens.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Dina Fa'alogo points to her communication with hitters as one of her steadiest strengths on the court, the kind of connective skill that keeps an offense running smoothly no matter who's setting up the play. But the biggest shift in her game this season is confidence, and she's refreshingly direct about where it came from. Her mom told her plainly that her confidence needed work, and rather than take it personally, Dina decided to prove it wrong. She's not scared to compete now, and she credits that one honest conversation with pushing her to become more herself on the court rather than less.   That willingness to adapt on the fly is exactly what UA Next asked of her, competing alongside new players in a new environment and adjusting quickly enough to keep up. Looking ahead, she's zeroed in on volleyball IQ and consistency as the two pieces she believes will elevate her game the most, a clear, self aware plan from an athlete who already knows how to turn a hard truth into forward motion.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Makala Baker's game is built on adjusting to whoever is around her, which made her a natural fit for the shuffled rosters of UA Next. Setting for teammates she'd never played with before, she focused on putting each hitter in her best position and controlling the tempo of the game, and she describes that responsibility as central to competing confidently throughout the camp.   Her biggest growth this season has been consistency, specifically the ability to deliver the same accurate set and tempo no matter what kind of pass she's working with. Whether the ball comes in perfect, off target, or as a freeball, she can now put it in the same spot for her hitters, the kind of reliability offenses are built around. She walked away from UA Next with a clear sense of what competing at a higher level requires: constant communication, the ability to adjust to new teammates, and enough trust in her hitters to strategically move a defense out of position. From here, she's chasing something more advanced, using deception to hold middle blockers and varying her tempo enough to make opposing blockers late, the kind of setter play that creates versatility for every hitter she works with.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247     Sash Fiallo has a specific memory that explains her growth better than any general description could. Early in her team's first tournament together, playing against Prime, her hitters kept running into the block on the pin. She realized the fix wasn't a different hitter or a different play, it was tempo, so she started putting more pace on her sets to the pins. Her team has been rolling ever since, and she traces that one in game adjustment directly to the improvement in her setting today.   Her setting and serving were already the parts of her game she trusted most heading into UA Next, and playing alongside a talented new group only sharpened that confidence further. What she took from competing at that level was an intensity mindset: every point deserves full effort, because in a gym full of players trying to make the same jump she is, it genuinely does. She's carrying that mindset into her offseason training, where speed, accuracy, and volleyball IQ top her list, along with extra conditioning to keep up with the physical demands of running an offense at a higher level.   ~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247    <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">If You Enjoyed This Article, Help Us Keep the Momentum Going</h2>   🔥 Athletes Use this article to grow. Take one trait from this group, whether it's communication, composure, or decision making, and apply it to your game this week. Want to take the next step? Reach out to a featured athlete and introduce yourself. Build connections, not just stats.   📣 Club Coaches & Directors Share this with your teams. Ten athletes, different clubs, and every one of them found something to build on inside a room full of strangers. If your athletes are highlighted, celebrate them. Post it, tag us, and help their stories reach the right eyes.   🎯 College Coaches Tag these athletes in University Athlete and evaluate them as potential fits for your program. We continue tracking their development through our articles, material coaches trust. Follow their progress as they step into high school volleyball and keep these prospects on your radar.   🙏 Parents & Supporters Thank you for being the backbone of this movement. Your subscriptions, shares, and belief in your athletes make this work possible. 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