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Recruiting News - Olympic Sports

What is it with Colorado Springs and volleyball players ending up at CU? :)
Let's hope there is a setter out there for the Buffs.
 
Ms. Smith, IF the rumor is true, could be a potentially BIG transfer for the Buffs. (All I see so far is a random post in the Volleytalk.com forum. Assume we'll hear soon if she has become a Buff since I assume she'd start at CU this semester, and would need to sign something before starting classes?) Coming out of high school and club, she was considered a PREMIERE player known for all-around excellence (Maybe/ hopefully similar to Stanford's just graduated star Jordan Burgess?).

In addition to being the #7 ranked prepvolleyball.com national Senior Ace, as Bebe mentioned, she was also named National High School Player of the Year by both (1) the National Coaches Association (http://gazette.com/prep-notes-l-ps-smith-named-national-player-of-year/article/1554017) and (2) Maxpreps (http://www.maxpreps.com/news/qMp_la...s-2014-all-american-girls-volleyball-team.htm).

From her Purdue stats (http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/pur/sports/w-volley/auto_pdf/2015-16/stats/season_stats.pdf)
1) Her attacking stats weren't overwhelming this (freshman) year at only 0.72 kills/set and a .179 hitting %. I believe a probable cause of that was she started the season recovering from a shoulder injury (labrum tear). Therefore, although she did manage to play in 111 of the Boilermaker's 122 sets, I'm guessing she lost a lot of practice time over the summer (and maybe wasn't 100% when the season started?), so probably wasn't able to work her way to becoming a consistent main offensive option as a freshman for a pretty top team (Purdue ended up ranked #17).

2) Even though her offensive numbers don't look overwhelming, she was still able to be a big contributor defensively, with a VERY good 2.06 digs per set. (With Alexis Austin leaving, there was no obvious choice for who the 6 rotation outside hitter(s) might be for the Buffs next year, and Ms. Smith would be the most obvious one to fill that role IF she is coming to CU. Of course, there's ~5+ other players I'm sure she will have to compete hard against to earn one of the 2 left-side hitter positions.)

3) Although the serving stats available to the public (aces and service errors) are NOT nearly enough to properly evaluate the real quality of a player's serve, it does appear Ms. Smith has at minimum a very efficient serve, as I'd guess her ace to service error ratio (12 errors vs. 21 aces, or 0.57 errors per ace) must have been one of the best in the nation. As reference, the average for the Pac 12 overall this season was 1.67 service errors per ace (1.8 in conference play), with UCLA the best as a team at 1.34 errors per ace.)
 
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Thanks for the good write up, Aztec. I had seen most of that last night but didn't have the time to create the summary. One clarification ... it wasn't just a torn labrum that Alexa was recovering from early in the season. She actually had surgery on the shoulder. She was recovering from the surgery. Some of the earlier matches that she played in it looks like she only played back row. A good way to gradually work her back into the matches while she completed her healing.
 
The latest conversation on Volleytalk forum is sounding more like this is true. A poster, other than the initial poster, has stated that he/she has checked it out to his satisfaction and that "There will be a press release soon enough".. Also noted the fact that Alexa and the Simpsons played for the same club and he/she believes that Alexa and Gabby are good friends.
 
Hope this means Gabby and Cierra are staying. Volleyball is so different from basketball since players do not have to sit out. Coach went right to work, didn't he?
 
Kathryn Attar, a 2017 outside hitter who had verballed to CU VB a few months back, is no longer listed as a CU commit on the Rich Kern web site. She is not listed as committed anywhere right now so maybe she is re-considering her options in light of the changes here.
 
Kathryn Attar, a 2017 outside hitter who had verballed to CU VB a few months back, is no longer listed as a CU commit on the Rich Kern web site. She is not listed as committed anywhere right now so maybe she is re-considering her options in light of the changes here.

Thanks- I'll remove her from the list in the OP. (Assume it could have also possibly been a scholarship numbers issue on the CU side with the new (yet to be announced) commitment?)
 
Was she an All American? I think two players had signed NLI.

Ms. Attar is a 2017 HS grad., so won't sign anywhere until next November at earliest. (She's a highly thought of player, so I'm sure will end up having many choices as to which college she ends up committing and signing with.)

The two 2016 NLI signees, Lauren Dorrell and Justine Spann, are I assume still CU-bound.
 
Prepvolleyball.com has published their list of the top 50 for the class of 2017. This list is put together by a panel of college coaches and is based on their projection of who are the 50 players in the Class of 2017 with the greatest potential to make a deep impact at the next level. There is no ranking, just alphabetical listing by position. Jaden Newsome, setter who has verballed to CU VB, is in the list. Hopefully she will stay committed.

A few weeks ago, they had published a preliminary list of the top 150 candidates who were being evaluated. Katherine Attar, the outside hitter who has evidently re-opened her recruiting, was in that group but she did not make this top 50 list or the list of "the next 35 who just missed".
 
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No real new news to report, but just noticed I'd forgotten to update the list of lacrosse commits, so wanted to mention I've added the 3 recruits I'd already posted about (2 for 2017, 1 for 2018) to the list in the original post that I hadn't added previously for that sport.
 
Looks like we can confirm Alexa Smith transferring to CU VB. Per a poster on Volleytalk, Alexa's Instragram bio now reads "skoooo buffs". And she is no longer listed on the Purdue VB roster.
 
Since this is only based on twitter, it can't be said to be confirmed***, but looks like Buff lacrosse possibly picked up another 2018 class verbal commit yesterday in 5'5" goaltender Andie Stave from Wootton High School in Rockville, MD, and MC (Montgomery County) Elite Lacrosse (Club), Gaithersburg, MD.

Best of wishes to her the remainder of her high school years, and congrats on committing to the Buffs!

Highlights- http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3884391/andie-stave

High school stats- http://leaguelineup.com/standings_lacrosse.asp?url=girlslaxwootton&ListType=2&stats=&ss=023 (Understandably (as a freshman), looks like she didn't get much playing time in 2015.)

(***As I believe I've mentioned previously, and is still the case, my normal main source to find and/ or confirm lacrosse commitments, the laxpower.com recruit database, hasn't started accepting or listing entries for the 2018 class yet.)
 
Kathryn Attar, a 2017 outside hitter who had verballed to CU VB a few months back, is no longer listed as a CU commit on the Rich Kern web site. She is not listed as committed anywhere right now so maybe she is re-considering her options in light of the changes here.

Kathryn was told she no longer has a CU offer by the new coaching staff. Really sad to hear that she is devestated by this and is now looking at her options. Hopefully she lands on her feet at a great program as it sounds like she is a good one!
 
Kathryn was told she no longer has a CU offer by the new coaching staff. Really sad to hear that she is devestated by this and is now looking at her options. Hopefully she lands on her feet at a great program as it sounds like she is a good one!
Brutal
 
Kathryn was told she no longer has a CU offer by the new coaching staff. Really sad to hear that she is devestated by this and is now looking at her options. Hopefully she lands on her feet at a great program as it sounds like she is a good one!

Guess with no NLI, CU can do that. Yes, it's brutal and I feel for her. Hope she finds a great school, just not one in the Pac 12
 
Found three more lacrosse verbal commitments for the 2018/19 academic year that look to have come in over the last few months:

1) Per the laxpower.com database, Midfield/ Defender Sabrina Robbins from Sharon HS, Sharon, MA, and the Mass Elite Lacrosse Club, has verbally committed.
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2) Per a tweet from her and congrats from friends, Attacker/ Midfield Liz Phillips, from Palmer Ridge HS in Monument CO and the Team 180 Sports lacrosse club, verbally committed a few hours ago.

MaxPreps stats- http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/liz-phillips/A7qyJylzEeS00gAmVebEWg/default.htm (Impressively, Ms. Phillips was already her HS team’s 3rd leading goal scorer as a freshman.)
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3) Per another tweet (found based on the way her congratulating tweet to Ms. Phillips was worded), another young woman from Colorado, Attacker/ Midfield Pearl Schwartz from Cherry Creek HS in Greenwood Village, and also Team 180 for club, committed thispast October.

Maxpreps stats- http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/pea...ndersport/girls-lacrosse-stats.htm#year=14-15

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Welcome and congrats to all 3 young women for their committing to join the Buffs! Hope the rest of their time in high school is productive and enjoyable.
 
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Thanks to Buffgal for the heads up (suggesting I look at who CU Volleyball has started following on Twitter)- looks like another (assume verbal at this point) commit for CU Volleyball for 2016 in 5'6" Defenive Specialist/ Libero Rachel Whipple from Smoky Hill HS in Aurora CO and Colorado Volleyball Acadamy. (Per her club website, looks like she was previously committed to Virginia Commonwealth (VCU).) Welcome and congrats to her coming to CU!

Stats- team - http://www.maxpreps.com/high-schools/smoky-hill-buffaloes-(aurora,co)/volleyball/stats.htm (Looks like she had ~45% of her teams digs and 46% of their serve receives this past season; both VERY impressive %'s, with the dig % especially being a ridiculous (in a good way) number.)
Career HS individual stats- http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/rac...g/gendersport/volleyball-stats.htm#year=15-16 (Looks like she has been her teams lead defensive player since her sophomore year.)

Per http://www.aurorasentinel.com/sports/preps/volleyball-2015-all-centennial-league-teams/ , she was 1st team all conference this past year.

A recruiting profile page (includes a video highlight tab)- http://www.prepathletes.us/latest_p...lMJ&sport_display=Volleyball&sport=Volleyball
 
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Congrats to new soccer signee Taylor Kornieck on being named Gatorade's Nevada's Player of the Year.

 
As I mentioned in the Olympic Sport signing thread, it looks like a couple young women who at one point had been committed to CU (per my usual sources) now look to be going somewhere else:
1) Jessie Hix ended up signing with her local school the U. of New Mexico Lobos (http://golobos.com/news/2016/2/3/WSOC_0203160647.aspx).

2) Per a Facebook post by her soccer club ( http://www.facebook.com/Minnesota-Thunder-Academy-147455731932664/?ref=nf ), it looks like Jennifer (Jenny) Marsh may now be going to defending National Championship runners-up Duke. I should add her status is still a little unclear to me, however, as I couldn't find anything showing she has formally signed with Duke yet.
(Duke hasn't written a formal announcement article yet that I could find, but were tweeting out their formal commitments during signing day (https://twitter.com/Duke_WSOC ), and Ms. Marsh wasn't one of the six young women they noted joining their squad. Of course, if she plans on walking-on there, then we might not see anything formal regarding her until she pops up on a Duke roster sometime next summer or fall.)

Best of wishes to both young women (except of course if/ when their teams play the Buffs).

In general, Coach Sanchez did say in his signing class announcement video there may be a couple other players that get added to the class later in the spring, and it certainly seems logical given the 2016 freshman class is currently five players, and the Buffs had 7 seniors leaving the team, along with 3 players so far who have transferred out. (I assume the majority of those 10 players lost would have been scholarship athletes?) Of course, the Buffs have also received some very productive transfers the last few years, so MAYBE (???) there will be some good incoming transfer news coming in the next month or two. (It looks like in the last 2 years the 1st incoming transfers were announced in mid-February one year and Mid-March the other.)

As was also already posted in another thread, links to formal announcements containing further info on the 5 young women who signed with Buffs soccer is available at-
Article- http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=210686934
Coach Sanchez Video- http://www.cubuffs.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=4987212
 
Per richkern.com (the web's main collector and source for volleyball commitments), looks like Buff volleyball lost and/ or parted ways with prior 2017 defensive specialist commitment Madeline Flora, as it's saying she just committed to Tulsa.

Best of wishes to her in college as a Golden Hurricane.
 
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Assume the name will soon be known, but looks like soccer has received a new 2018 commit.

 
Just from a passing comment in a Women's Golf article from today (http://www.cubuffs.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=210737095) , they have two signed 2016 commits I didn't know about earlier. Looks like I missed the article from last December that announced them joining the Buffs (http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210549895).

Anyways, welcome to Kirsty Hodgkins and Robyn Choi (Both Aussies from the state of Queensland) for joining the Buffs!

(Looks like Australia is becoming fertile recruiting ground for the Buff "warm weather" sports, as both freshmen on the tennis team this season also hail from "Down Under".)
 
Further congrats are in order for 2016 soccer commit and midfielder Taylor Kornieck!

Per http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/twenty-two-players-called-into-u18-trip_aid38892, she is 1 of 22 players selected to be on "The U.S. Under-18 Women’s National Team (that) will travel to La Manga, Spain, from Feb. 27-March 7 for three matches against Under-19 teams as part of the annual event in southwest Spain."

Also, per the article, "All the players traveling to Spain are age-eligible for the team that will participate in the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup which has an age cut-off of players born on or after Jan. 1, 1996, but the goal for this age group is to ultimately qualify for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup."
 
Not confirmed yet via my usual running websites, but per their tweets looks like it may have been a very good recruiting day for the men’s cross country/ distance track teams, as two of the top high school distance runners in California (and the country) look to have verbally committed to join the Buffs next year (2016/17).

Assuming they do end up at CU, Welcome and congrats to Eduardo (Lalo) Herrera and Phillip Rocha joining the Buffs!

(Note- looks like they both had fun with their twitter announcements.)







More about the runners-

Phillip Rocha (Arcadia HS, Arcadia, CA)

In cross country (http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Athlete.aspx?AID=4777777 ), he ended up the #2 ranked runner in the country this past season in both the Flo50 (http://www.milesplit.com/rankings/flo50/582-boys-national-xc-rankings/1315-dec-14) and Dyestat (http://dyestatxcrankings.runnerspace.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=46052&do=news&news_id=386901) rankings; Named California Gatorade Cross Country Runner of the year in 2015 (http://www.gatorade.com/poy/profile.aspx?id=16229) . Won California Division 1 State cross country titles/ races in both 2014 and 2015, and finished 2nd in one of the 2 major national races (Footlocker) in 2015. (He was a VERY consistent racer this past season, with that 2nd place at Footlocker being his ONLY non-winning race out of 11 xc races showing for him this past season on athletic.net .)

In track (http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=4777777#/L0 ), looks like he didn’t run in last year’s state meet as a junior after finishing 2nd in the Southern California section in the 3,200 meters, so assume he may have been suffering from an illness or injury when the state meet took place.

(Note- The Buffs can only hope lightning strikes twice and for 8 years straight, as current senior track/ XC star for the Buffs Ammar Moussa also went to Arcadia HS.)

Eduardo (Lalo) Herrera (Madera South HS, Madera, CA)

In Cross Country (http://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Athlete.aspx?AID=4731611), ended up the #8 ranked cross country runner in the country in the same two rankings linked to above (Flo50 and Dyestat). He finished 2nd behind only Mr. Rocha in this past season’s Division 1 California cross country championships, and finished 5th in the other of the 2 big national races (NXN) held at the end of this past season.

In track (http://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=4731611#/L0), finished 3rd as a junior at 3,200 meters in the Div. 1 state championship race after winning his CIF (Central) section races at both 1,600 and 3,200 meters.
 
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And the rich get richer!! I love saying that in reference to the Buffs. Welcome young runners!
 
Looks like soccer picked up another 2017 verbal commit.


Per a twitter search, looks like the new future Buff is midfielder Katie Joella from top Colorado school Mountain Vista High in Highlands Ranch and the Real Colorado (National) soccer club.

Welcome and congrats to Ms. Joella!

Stats- http://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/kat...2gAmVebBJg/gendersport/girls-soccer-stats.htm (Impressively, averaged 1.5 points per match (9 goals and 4 assists in 15 matches) last season as a sophomore. Looks like the 2016 season is just starting for Colorado high schools, so no stats for this year yet.)
 
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