KC Pre-National Notes
There were a few Pre-National showcases going on around the country. We gave a little preview of the one held just outside Kansas City in neighboring Lawrence. Besides Kansas City teams, we saw teams from the St. Louis area, Arkansas,…
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Continue ReadingThere were a few Pre-National showcases going on around the country. We gave a little preview of the one held just outside Kansas City in neighboring Lawrence. Besides Kansas City teams, we saw teams from the St. Louis area, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado. Here are some thoughts and notes on the two days of action.
The word “tournament” is used lightly as it was no advancement and bracket play. Teams play other teams relatively similar in skill level on the first day. The second day featured some of the competitive younger teams playing up against competitive older teams. Power ‘] and Topeka Impact co-hosted the event and I must say it was a well-put-together tournament.
Another note. In my two years of writing for Prep Dig, I have always preferred to stay behind the scenes and just observe and write. I dialogue with some coaches and parents via email but from my experience being a former junior volleyball parent, it keeps things cleaner not trying to be over interactive with players and parents. Also since I also officiate, I found it best to use a Pseudonym, which you know as John Q. Archibald. I told myself I would start this fall start introducing myself to more athletes. I got a headstart this weekend and introduced myself while keeping score to who I didn’t know at the time would be Prep Dig’s top player in 2024, Skyler Pierce Skyler Pierce 6'3" | OH Olathe Northwest | 2024 State #4 Nation KS . What I learned in my short time and conversation with her, as good as she is as a volleyball player she is a phenomenal young lady that does an amazing job in time management and keeping her priorities together. Regardless of the path volleyball takes her, she is going to be alright regardless due to her work ethic and attitude. It was a pleasure to meet you Sky!
Now back to what we saw this weekend…
In the first match I saw, Skyler Pierce Skyler Pierce 6'3" | OH Olathe Northwest | 2024 State #4 Nation KS and her Dynasty 16 Black team against Janelle Green Janelle Green 5'9" | S Blue Valley North | 2024 State #68 Nation KS and her Power ‘] 16-1 team. My immediate thoughts. Abigail Mullen Abigail Mullen 6'3" | RS Liberty | 2025 State #3 Nation MO being hidden in serve receive to be a back-row attack option is scary! Ryan McAleer Ryan McAleer 5'5" | DS/L Blue Valley | 2024 State #29 Nation KS is a huge difference-maker. I don’t talk about Reese Meeser enough. There is not a better 1-2 combination at this age group in the country on the left pin than Pierce and Carlie Cisneros Carlie Cisneros 6'0" | OH Liberty North | 2024 State #7 Nation MO . I also learned we are seeing the next level of growth from Alea Goolsby Alea Goolsby 5'11" | OH St. Thomas Aquinas | 2025 State #36 Nation KS . She is a name we will be talking about much more. Power has a tandem of defenders who are more than capable of rocking the libero jersey in Mya Bolton Mya Bolton 5'3" | DS/L St. James Academy | 2024 State #134 Nation KS and Rachel Van Gorp Rachel Van Gorp 5'9" | OH Heritage Christian | 2024 State #94 Nation KS . Green is a much better blocker in person and increases her stock in my opinion.
Shockwave 16 Sean will be heading to Orlando for AAU’s in the coming weeks and looked primed to make their mark in Florida after a successful weekend. Grace Hett Grace Hett 5'5" | DS/L Marion | 2024 State KS looked sharp in the libero jersey. 9 and 10, or Jillian Gregory Jillian Gregory 6'0" | OH Maize South | 2025 State #66 Nation KS and Hope Duncan Hope Duncan 5'8" | DS/L Smoky Valley | 2024 State KS were productive in the little action we saw.
Calissa Minatee Calissa Minatee 6'0" | MB North Kansas City | 2023 State #25 Nation MO is fed the ball often and it’s normally a good decision because she has great court vision and puts the ball down for Dynasty 17 Black. Power ‘] 17-1 has so much height and at times I saw a triple block. They are going to be tough for opposing attacks. A healthy Reagan Fox Reagan Fox 6'2" | OH St. Teresa's Academy | 2023 State #104 Nation MO is a scary Reagan Fox Reagan Fox 6'2" | OH St. Teresa's Academy | 2023 State #104 Nation MO .
Kelsey Schenck Kelsey Schenck 5'11" | S St. Thomas Aquinas | 2024 State KS , setter for Mavs KC 16-1 is very athletic and the truth. A very smart decision-maker and floor general. In the match we watch, on the opposite side of the net, Setter Kadence Marsh of NORCO 16-1 matched her play and was impressive throughout the contest.
I walked by one court and a player I saw warming up and told myself I needed to watch some of their matches turned out to be Destiny Ndam-Simpson Destiny Ndam-Simpson 6'1" | OH Omaha Westside | 2023 State #37 Nation NE . The Creighton commit is something special…I’ll just leave it at that. One of the biggest 15s teams I saw this weekend was the Colorado Juniors 15 Shannon team. Bridget Malone was a force on the pin.
Invasion 16 Black looked strong in their afternoon matchup Saturday with HP South. PVA 15 Elite is going to be a tough out in the USA division at nationals. They were on their game Sunday morning in a straight-set win over Oklahoma Premier.
It was a fun weekend and glad to see players back in the gym. We did see Jillian Huckabey Jillian Huckabey 6'0" | OH Olathe Northwest | 2024 State #74 Nation KS go down on a net play. We hope for a speedy recovery. Stay tuned, we have a lot of national previews coming your way. Spoiler: We are picking Dynasty 16 Black to repeat.