Autumn Horning Autumn Horning 5'5" | S/DS/L Lake Howell | 2029 State FL holds a top-50 overall ranking in the class of 2029 and plays for Top Select 14-2, and the performance she put together at the USA Volleyball Junior Nationals Pre-Tournament Showcase made it easy to see why both of those things are true. The 5’5″ setter from Lake Howell earned a Top Performer award in Indianapolis by running a system with unfamiliar hitters and making it look natural, getting to bad passes with quick feet, varying her tempo and consistently putting her attackers in position to succeed against a block they were seeing for the first time. Court coaches praised her decisiveness and her court vision throughout both the skill and scrimmage portions of the event, and the leadership she showed in keeping her teammates connected and competing was noted as one of the defining qualities of her night. She brought genuine sportsmanship to every segment and competed with a composure that college coaches associate with setters who are further along in their development than their class year suggests. Please help me congratulate her on earning Top Performer honors at this showcase. 

Autumn has already been logging reps with one of the stronger club programs in her region, which has put her in front of a level of competition that accelerates a setter’s development curve. Whenyou watch her play, you see that her game is necessarily built on quickness, footwork precision, and decision-making rather than physical length and those are exactly the qualities a setter needs to make a system run smoothly regardless of size. What evaluators should watch for in Indianapolis is how efficiently she gets to the ball and squares her shoulders before release and whether her tempo choices show variety or fall into predictable patterns when the blockers across the net are unfamiliar. I am looking forward to seeing her in position specific drills with other setters from across the nation.