The Magic of Triple Crown NIT

Two club seasons ago I had the very fortunate experience of coaching my 17 Open team to a Triple Crown NIT gold medal. We entered the event with hopes to compete and fair well as we had high goals and expectations for our season. Our experience ended up being one of the most exhilarating, intense, and fun tournaments I've ever been a part of.   From my perspective, after decades of coaching club volleyball, this event stands above most others in all aspects. The setting, structure, visibility, schedule flow, and sheer atmosphere and hype involving so much effort and energy for the game in general and towards an event that many anticipate with great excitement following their invitation to compete among the best of the best teams from across the country. Plus, our gold medal win was streamed over an ESPN platform. How cool is that? It is a juggernaut of an tournament with a grueling schedule to get to the top, but at the same time is an awesome measure of where teams are at this stage of the club season.   In dedicating the past few years to learning, supporting and promoting the Ohio prep volleyball scene for girls, I am excited for the several teams and prospects that get to showcase their skills in front their supporters while also continuing to display their talents and value to next level opportunities and the many college coaches that will be in attendance. Here are some Ohio 2027 athletes that I feel can really make a big statement this weekend.    Schulte's game just keeps getting better and better. She is becoming more complete in all phases including in bonus areas from primary setters such as defense at the net and in the back row, and in her ability to be more offensive in what she can do aggressively at the second touch. The confidence she shows in her own play with this team, that has some big offensive tools, helps to get the best out of them when they have opportunities from what she creates for them. They open up as the top seed in Power Pool C with great opportunity against teams from both coasts and in between.     Zgonc certainly has one of the most aggressive and powerful arms when she applies contact to the ball. She has the ability to absolutely unload with good arm speed and pace that can terminate with good authority. She is a terminal hitter in that she often is swinging with one purpose, to score and end plays, rather than to manage and control a point until she can find open space. And what she brings can overpower defenses, which will continue to impress those that see her for the first time or are continuing their observation and evaluation of her game. This is a great event to see how well she handles this big stage with great depth of elite talent she'll face.     Cocherl is another very impressive and terminal arm. She is a fluid attacker that can get big air and seemingly do what she wants with her arm control, pace, and location once she makes her move to contact the ball above the net. With open space she can swing straight now. When hands are in front of her she can go over or around them. Her collection of competitive experience includes high volume of opportunity as well as points scored so it will be fun to watch her lead this offense with those things in mind throughout the Triple Crown NIT battlefield. This team has other pieces that must be respected so she should find some good opportunities to terminate and score. They will being play in Power Pool D.     I really like Marrero's game as a libero. She is a backbone-type of player in what she does to ignite an offense while frustrating opponents with her passing and defense tools and effectiveness. She reads and tracks with comfort and ease in her movement, rarely getting rattled, while also showing the grit and aggressiveness to extend and sacrifice herself to make big plays and creating more opportunities for the hitters around her. AVC 16 Red will look to take down teams early as part of Power Pool B.      Laaper is so fundamentally sound in her pursuit of the ball with good focus and intention in her footwork and speed to get herself on balance to be able to set the ball in all directions as often as possible. She has some of the best against-the-flow action with good force in her extension to get the ball to travel for distance and location of which can create some of the best scoring opportunities for her hitters. She shares the setting role with another solid 2027 prospect in [player_tooltip player_id='474086' first='Kelsie' last='Smith'], which allows more offense to emerge with a consistent presence of capable scoring at the right pin. If all pieces are in sync, this team could finish well.      Emerging as one of the best arms in the greater Cincy area as well as the full Ohio landscape, one with length, high contact point, pace and range, Waleskowski (*pictured) is a huge threat any time she approaches to swing. Her contributions at the recent Central Zones event were tangible given she is multidimensional in what she can contribute for her team. She can score aggressively from either side of the court, but may be more lethal from the right side where she sees most of her opportunities. Her size is as asset defensively at the net while she has good mechanics to get up and over the net fast to pressure opponents. Add that she can be solid in the serve receive game, and I can confidently say that Waleskowski has established herself as an elite-potential athlete without much visible weakness.

Two club seasons ago I had the very fortunate experience of coaching my 17 Open team to a Triple Crown NIT gold medal. We entered the event with hopes to compete and fair well as we had high goals and expectations for our season. Our experience ended up being one of the most exhilarating, intense, and fun tournaments I've ever been a part of.