Maria was clearly one of the top middles at the Stock up Showcase. She buried a number of balls hitting the quick tempo sets. Blocking is always a difficult skill to measure at these events since you don’t see a lot of that until the six-person occurs near the end.

Virginia Elite 16 won the Shamrock Showdown taking the third set in the finals 19-17. Maria scored the last two points of the set with a block followed by a redirect kill to end the match. That gives me a good read about her ability to block.

Last year Woodbridge brought in a number of frosh who contributed to a successful season. They lost in the first round to Mountain View in the Regionals. They do get another year of experience from some of their younger players. While Maria led the team in blocking last year as a sophomore she hopes to make a greater contribution with her offense. Last year she was fifth on the team in kills, but she carried the second best hitting percentage among the hitters.