You can easily see that Malia has habits she has built competing against older players at the varisty level and they showed up clearly at the SoCal Showcase. Her first step is quick and she commits to her movement direction early, which is the single most important physical indicator of a libero who reads the game rather than reacts to it. You can only obtain that skill by having no fear and going up gainst top talent in practice. The platform she brought to first contact was consistent and angled toward her target rather than just getting the ball airborne, giving her setter usable passes throughout both sessions. She competed with a scrappiness that was easy to appreciate and never took a point off regardless of where the match stood. She caught my eye from the first moment I saw her in the individual positional drills and kept my attention during the scrimmages as well.  If you give her a chance, you will love what you see.

Malia Alvino Malia Alvino 5'4" | DS/L Monrovia | 2029 CA has evidence to back up every part of her game. As one of only five returning varsity players at Monrovia heading into her sophomore year, she’s already carrying real institutional weight on her team. This spring, her club season built toward the AAU Festival championship in Phoenix, a third-set match against a team that had beaten her squad earlier in the year at the Reno qualifier. With the score tied late, her coach turned to her and told her to take the set. She did. That kind of moment doesn’t happen without the defensive consistency she’s built in serve receive, where she’s worked on keeping her shoulders down and trusting her training rather than playing cautious in big spots. Off the court, she’s balancing a 4.2 GPA with an active recruiting process that’s included a USC clinic and a University of La Verne prospects camp. As the only freshman on her varsity roster last year, she spent the season studying which leadership styles actually earned trust, and she’s carrying that observation into a bigger role this year, including suggesting a defensive strategy shift to her club coach that got implemented.

~ Michelle Bamford @Coachable247