Mary had a great showcase and showed why she is one of the better liberos in all of southern AZ. First, she is great out of system, always giving her hitters great options for swings and being a calming influence with her ball control to start getting the team back in system. During drills she stood out with her ability to take up a lot of space, showing off great lateral footwork to take deep balls away in serve receive and defense. She seems to be very light on her feet and able to get a ton of touches on balls throughout drills and game play.

Defensively, she covered a lot of court and made several high-level digs against quality attackers throughout the showcase. It probably frustrated a ton of hitters to continually get dug by Mary throughout the showcase, but she was always in a great position with perfect form to take these hard driven balls or tips when needed. She played with that high energy we look for in liberos and was always talking and communicating whether it was during a play or between plays to her teammates. Mary is someone to be on the lookout for during school season!

One thing I Mary did really well at the event on Sunday was her ability to communicate while doing everything on the floor. She was talking in serve receive, she was communicating to hitters when she saw openings in coverage, and she was calling the for the ball every time is was near her. She was doing what we want to see in terms of calling and communicating for the ball.

Mary also is an excellent defender and really showed that throughout the event. She did a great job reading hitters and moving her feet to get to the ball. She had great form and technique on contact each and every time she touched the ball, whether in serve receive or defense. Mary also consistently delivered in-system passes during both drill work and live play, as she was solid throughout the whole event.

Mary is someone who can develop into a top tier libero, she demonstrated throughout the event traits and skills that are needed to be a top level libero. At the event itself, she was a standout and someone we took notice of both during drill and team play. We can’t wait to see how she competes during club season, and are excited to watch her development.