Ava blew me away with the strength of her hitting in the middle. At 5’10’ she has decent height for a middle, but she also has great athleticism to go along with a good vertical to put the ball away.

It does appear that her athleticism also applies to basketball. She has highlights from her play with the Riverside basketball team.

Ava certainly put herself on the radar with her performance at the Junior Nationals. Now she will need to make the varsity roster at Riverside. Last year Riverside won the Virginia Class 5 state championship. They will have a couple openings in middle as well as right side due to graduation.

Ava belongs to the class of 2028, playing down on the Virginia Juniors 15 team. She put a couple balls down in the middle that made me go “wow”. While she received a few mentions when she played on Virginia Juniors 14 she really captured my attention with the 15 team. Her timing for the quick tempo sets is incredible, with an impressive jump that gets her high above the net. She also sets up the block well.

With her athleticism it would not surprise me to see her eventually move to a pin. Ava lists two time defending champ Riverside as her high school but she did not make the varsity roster.