Urbana lost some heavy hitting with Charis Burge playing big minutes for Syracuse this year. Abigail has been doing her best to carry things along in the meantime. Urbana is 6-3 currently and slugging it out in their region. Two of their losses, Richard Montgomery and Churchill are likely contenders for the state title. The class of 2027 is almost mythologically deep here in the DMV area. Out of 42 setters just in the PrepDig rankings, 12 of them are signed for next year, and another 7 of them are talking to schools, that I know of myself. It’s kind of amazing when you realize that most of these girls are talking to the same schools in the same geographic region. And that’s not including neighboring regions like lower VA and the PA Valley. I think there may even be more signed if they were looking to branch out around the country. Abigail is one in that mid range height wise, like 5’7-5’9 where they could run a 6-2 or run a 5-1 in a pinch. A huge majority of the setters in this group fall in this category. Another reason why it’s hard to set them apart from each other. I’ve seen her up close a couple times (and more over the years) and she’s got a nice touch for the ball, which is more rare than you’d think, and a good IQ on how to run a game or a system. That’s one of the more underrated tools for a setter that is getting attention now. Coaches want setters that can evaluate the court and see where the weaknesses are, and how to bait and shift players to give your matchups more help. The term gets thrown around that they are the Quarterback of the offense, but that’s more correct than many realize. More of the advanced girls like Abigail are figuring out what read to give the other team that moves a middle to one side, which opens up the 1v1 on the other side. As metrics start getting tracked, a good one for setters will be how many hitting opportunities were 1v1 vs 2v1. That will be a good indicator of a smart setter running an offense well, and Abigail I feel will score high on that.