DMV Exposure Tour DS Dynamos Dominated

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Always fun when we can include some alliteration in a post. There were a ton of DS at this stop of the tour, about 40% of the turnout were our defensive specialists and they varied in size, shape, skill and sound. We had loud communicators, as you may have read in a previous post. There were so many it was hard to give everyone enough reps and attention. Gameplay is where I see a lot of my evaluation, and on some of the courts, strangely there just wasn't a ton of action for some of the DS. Whether balls were just hitting one spot over and over, or not coming down in play or whatever the case, with almost 40 girls to look at, I feel like some didn't get as much time to shine at this one, so I've got another list of players from this to keep an eye on during the season. Some of the top DS that I did manage to catch are as follows:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Kayla Tutoni - 2029 - Metro</strong> </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If you've been reading my posts this year you already know this is one of my favorites. Kayla has a crazy motor, she goes 100mph all the time, and the speed and range she shows on balls is elite. She's great at serve receive, even from some tough older players, she's got a good platform that leads to solid, soft passes right on target, and the space she covers with that speed is just next level. She's one of the elites even at her young age, and playing at Metro this year, she's going to get some serious attention. As small as she is she gets good velocity on her serves, and will get a couple surprise aces this year from players not ready for it. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='847368' first='Amirah' last='Jackson'] - 2027 - Metro</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Amirah was referred to me by the coaching staff on her court, they actually were fairly loaded on that court with quite a few of my top performer and top player picks all in one place, but the fact she was hanging tough with them says a lot. She showed good speed and covered a lot of ground on balls, and when I got to see her again during game play did a pretty good job of getting good clean passes to the setters, especially on some tough serve receive. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='730577' first='Anna' last='Hudson'] - 2028 - [program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last='']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Anna, I heard before I saw her. Being one of my top communicators, she was loud. Cheering. Directing. It was her show over there, it made me laugh a little bit, because you don't often hear so much out of the younger, smaller DS groups, but she owned it. She showed good range and speed and made quite a few tough pancakes while I was watching. She showed good soft touch with her passes and got them to the right spot for the setters. I caught a bit of her serving too which looked very solid, good placement and a bit of movement to it. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='885251' first='Athena' last='Pham'] - 2028 - St. James</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Athena showed good strength and consistency when I got to see her. She played a bit more like the second style DS you see, the solid one that plays every ball they get to almost flawlessly, but with slightly less range or speed. More consistency, less flash, just as valuable. She had good chemistry and worked well with the other girls out there, which is often very hard for DS at these showcases, communication is so important back there, knowing who is covering what seam, who has the short, who has the corners etc. But she seemed to get along with everyone she played with and settled right into a comfort zone right away each time. There's something to be said for that kind of chemistry. She was also a lovely girl off the court, which is always such a nice find, you just can't help but root for them, so I'll be keeping tabs on this one through the year as well. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='896390' first='Harper' last='Walker'] - 2029 - Metro</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Harper is so young and I forget it sometimes because I've watched her a couple years already, she's just so good out there. She would be a no-brainer for top performer, but we are supposed to be looking at people who haven't won it previously. She's just always so solid and unflappable back there, another in that consistent, reliable crowd that you need to build a team around. She had a great year during HS season, and looks to be continuing that on with her new Metro team this season. I may see her less than I'm used to this year, but I'm guessing she's going to look better and better every time I see her because of that. Her passing is going to be a major key to that team's success, and they are loaded and ready for a run. That Metro National team of hers is one of the few that I wouldn't call a second team, even with the top team being a national title contender, her team could make a very deep run and make some noise on it's own, and that starts with Harper, her serve receive and that first pass. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This is a good start to a DS list, but there were so many I'm going to do a second list as well. There's no real ranking order wise among them, just too many for one post. To be continued...</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->