First-Year Stars

I’ve been wanting to do a first-year-round-up in the region to see which teams got immediate impacts from freshman. We’ve got another empty Thursday so it seemed like a good time. My original method for the names below is that they had to be in the Top 100 nationally in a given statistic. This, of course, meant that I was going to miss some really good players. One player that didn’t make the cut was La Verne’s Lauren Gott, which to me meant that I shouldn’t even write the article. So, I altered my bar to be Top 100 nationally or equal or better than Lauren Gott in a statistic. Shockingly, Gott made this second cut. As a reminder, I’m not looking at transfers in this go-around.

Before I get to the player burbs, I don’t think there is anything telling by which teams have players on this list. We have two from one-loss La Verne so if a first-year is good enough to contribute, it really won’t matter where they are playing. We also have a nice mix of positions from these players so there is probably not a position that is easier to contribute right away although I think setter is pretty darn difficult. We do have 5 middles so maybe that’s the way to go and it probably shows how needy teams are at the position. Let’s get to the players. (Statistics as of October 4^th)

Corrina Benson – Libero (Pomona-Pitzer)

Corrina is currently 11^th in region in Digs/Set (84^th nationally) and 68^th nationally in Total Digs. She’s from Minnesota so an interesting pull for Pomona College but she’s hit the ground running taking over the libero position. Corrina’s best match so far was against Pacific Lutheran where she had 6 aces and 30 digs. She has one kill on the season, which I always think are fun for liberos. I wonder if that’s her personal highlight so far? Pomona-Pitzer has a nice history of great liberos and it looks like Corrina will be the next one.

Emily Blagg – Middle/Right Side (George Fox)

Emily is currently 6^th in the region in Hitting Percentage (33^rd nationally) and let me just say that she doesn’t get the ball enough although that seems to be changing as of late. She has 4 matches of double-digit kills (all in her last 6 matches) but if she’s not getting at least 6 swings a set (has happened only 4 times so far) then I may have to get on a plane to Oregon and have a frank discussion with a couple of setters. Her lowest hitting percentage in her career is 0.227. That’s her lowest. She just came off a match against Lewis & Clark where she hit 0.500 with her best match being against Whitworth where she came away with 13 kills. Emily is listed as a Right Side but has been playing Middle, which makes her efficiency all the more impressive.

Malia Capistrano – Setter (La Verne)

It’s tough to come into a team with some excellent players and quarterback a team with only one loss so far on the year, but that’s what Mailia has done. She is currently 2^nd in the region in Assists/Set (8^th nationally), 5^th regionally in Service Aces and 2^nd regionally in Total Assists. Malia already has two matches with more than 50 assists and three with 20+ digs. She also has been a SCIAC Player of the Week. Malia has been running a 5-1 although she’s a bit undersized but it hasn’t stopped her from leading one of the best offenses in the nation.

Mia Fedota – Middle (Puget Sound)

Mia is currently 112^th in the nation in Blocks/Set, 49^th in Hitting Percentage (8^th in region) and 88^th in Total Blocks. She’s another middle that needs more swings and since Coach Mark Massey reads the site, I’ll simply go to him and say what’s up with this? Seven swings against Lewis & Clark total? She hit 0.714! (Mark loves it when I tell him how to coach.) Mia has 5 matches with double-digit kills and her high in blocking was 7 block assists against PLU (and let’s face it all block assists should be solo blocks for the middle).

Lauren Gott – Outside (La Verne)

Ah, the creator of the Gott rule. If you haven’t watched a La Verne match, yet, please do and enjoy the outsides in Mya Ray and Lauren. They both are 6-rotation and feature in the attack on the back row. Lauren isn’t in the Top 100 nationally but she does appear in 6 different statistical categories (must be Top 250 nationally); Attacks/Set, Kills/Set, Points, Points/Set, Total Attacks and Total Kills. She’s 11^th in the region in Points/Set and has one SCIAC Player of the Week honor this season. Lauren has 9 matches with double-digit kills with her high being 19 against UC Santa Cruz. Her high in digs was 26 against TLU and she features in the service receive where there has been only 2 matches where she has 2 or more receiving errors. Finding a 6-rotation outside that can contribute immediately is one of the most difficult things to do in DIII volleyball and La Verne has now done it two years in a row.

Jadyn Hernandez – Middle (Hardin-Simmons)

Jadyn is currently 5^th in the region in Blocks/Set (23^rd nationally) and 20^th in the nation in Total Blocks. She’s already showing to be a 6’2” force in the middle for an improving Hardin-Simmons team. I don’t like that she wears the #1 jersey because although middles are the best, they need a stronger number (something the setters wouldn’t wear). Jadyn had a career high 5 solo blocks against Concordia and a career high 11 kills against LeTourneau. It will be interesting to see her offense develop over the next 3 years and where her blocking game will end up.

Mari Hernandez – Libero (UT-Dallas)

Mari is currently 12^th in the region in Digs/Set (85^th nationally), which will only get better because she hasn’t played the libero position in every match. She just had 30 dig matches against both Concordia and Mary Hardin-Baylor and is a very strong server. UT-Dallas historically has always been an elite defensive team so claiming the libero position as a freshman is a high honor.

Giana Hilliard – Outside (Schreiner)

Giana is currently 198^th nationally in Kills/Set, 7^th in the region in Points (113^th nationally), 94^th nationally in Total Attacks and 6^th in the region in Total Kills (75^th nationally). She mainly plays 3 rotations but is the go-to person on the attack as she leads her team in the main offensive categories. Giana has had 13 double-digit kill matches with 17 being her high (has done it twice). Maybe the most impressive statistic is her 0.255 Hitting Percentage, which is extremely high for an outside.

Natalie Hughes – Middle (Mary Hardin-Baylor)

UMHB always does well recruiting middles and they found another great one in Natalie. She is currently 89^th nationally in Blocks/Set, 152^nd in Hitting Percentage and 98^th in Total Blocks. You want your middles to be able to block and to be efficient in the attack and Natalie has already got that down. Natalie had a 14-kill match against Bethel (TN) and an 8 Total Block match against Schreiner in a 3-set win. She’s another middle that needs more swings and, between you and me, middles always need more swings.

Rylee McAlexander – Middle (Howard Payne)

Our last middle on the list is Rylee but she might be the only one that gets her swings as the team certainly does go to her and she doesn’t disappoint hitting 0.325 (76^th nationally in Hitting Percentage). She has had 6 matches with double-digit kills and has a killer serve to boot. Rylee probably needs to continue to improve on her blocking but you have to love the offense and certainly a player to build around in the coming years.

Bailey Schievelbein – Outside (UT-Dallas)

Our second UT-Dallas player and one that has already won an ASC Player of the Week award. Bailey is 58^th nationally in Attacks/Set, 163^rd in Kills/Set, 184^th in Points/Set and 147^th in Total Attacks. She certainly is the focal point of the Comets’ attack. Bailey had a UTD record tying 27 kills in a 4-set win against Howard Payne and a career high 17 digs against St Thomas. She plays 6-rotation and hits hard. Bailey could improve on her efficiency but that’s a tall order for a first-year outside getting 50 to 60 attacks a match. Still, Bailey is going to be a menace her next three years.

I know I missed some really good players going with my method but it shows how first-year players can come into any program and contribute right away.