VBall adds a 6'4" 2024 Middle Blocker
- Thread starter HOF Coach
- Start date
Her older sister.....Rainelle Jones....just finished her career with the University of Maryland. She was also a middle blocker and had some very good stats...see below. The last time I looked....Ryla was the 3rd highest ranked player in Virginia.
Rainelle Jones Stats
- Program leader in career block assists (654)
- Program leader in career total blocks (718)
- Finished her career as the NCAA Active leader in block assists (654) and total blocks (718)
- 5th All-Time Big Ten in Total Blocks (718)
- 3rd All-Time Big Ten in Block Assists (654)
- 2022 All-Big Ten Second Team
- 2022 NCAA blocks per set leader (1.59)
- 2022 Big Ten blocks per set leader (1.59)
- 2022 Volleyball Magazine All-American Honorable Mention
Somewhat speculative by me, but with this recruit and his first 2025 recruit (if she is in scholarship; since she lives near Youngstown, who knows?) both being Middle Blockers, maybe he intends to keep Babcock as an outside hitter, which is where she played in HS.
Her HS coach was quoted as saying he thought her best position in college would be MB, but she needed to learn NOT to jump too high, which she did in HS.
Her HS coach was quoted as saying he thought her best position in college would be MB, but she needed to learn NOT to jump too high, which she did in HS.
The blue gold game in August may be the best game of the year.....Babcock and the other freshmen may be hard to keep on the bench. I'm anxious to see how the newcomers perform with their older, more experienced teammates. Apparently, the new '25 recruit....Abbey Emch....is 6'3". I've read she has OH skills as well as MB ability. One article predicts she has top 10 possibility as a 2025 recruit.
So if that is the case, definitely not a walk-on. With 5 recruits in the 2023 and 2024 classes and now her in 2025, plus Jepsen only being a sophomore this year, he is going to have to be very selective in recruiting these next two years.
I've often wondered where Pitt's B-team would finish in the ACC...
The 2024 class of recruits is actually 3.....Ryla Jones (MB), Kianna Dinn (S/OH), and Mallorie Meyer (DS/L). Dinn is from Kentucky....Meyer from Nebraska. Fisher generally has a roster of 16 athletes which usually includes an incoming freshmen class of 3 to 4. Usually, about 4 per year leave through graduation...and a couple more transfer or just leave volleyball altogether. Those I suspect will be playing their last year in 2023 include Akeo, Vasquez Gomez, Flood, Monks, Nwokolo, and Mosely. In my mind...only Flood could possibly return for a 5th year. The roster for 2023 is 16....so Fisher could once again find himself down to 13 athletes going into 2024 which includes the 2024 class of recruits above. Looks like he'll be looking for 2 or 3 transfers from the portal again in 2024.
Any sense of how the 2024 class will rank nationally? Does this class compare favorably to the 2023 class in terms of national talent ?
I don't have the paid subscriptions to publications like prepdig, volleyballrecruiter, etc which have these rankings on their website. I wish sports like volleyball were as open and transparent as football and basketball with this information. That said....as you know....the incoming class were all top 100 recruits on a national basis. I can tell you Ryla Jones is the number 3 ranked recruit in Virginia and Kiana Dinn is number 8 in Kentucky according to prepdig. I don't know how they rank nationally.
They also have Mallorie Meyer, a libero, from Nebraska, who committed for next year. I don't know where she's ranked.
It has to be tough to put together any sort of national rankings that are meaningful. Not every girl plays for a big, top flight club nor do they necessarily play most of their season in a region that has a lot of top talent. HS team could be a real drag on them because they don't have much around them. I think that's why you see a lot of transfers "up" in VB that are impactful. Also not sure what summer camps do for recruiting compared to a sport like FB.
Makes one wonder how the evaluation/recruitment works for schools like Pitt. If I'm not mistaken....a lot of commitments occur even before a girl's junior season begins. That means it's all about club volleyball......right? Also....does club volleyball factor into a girl's recognition as say 1st team all state for instance.
I actually talked to Kayla Lund a while back on a podcast to talk about what the VB recruiting process is like, comparing it to football (because it's the one I was most familiar with). I don't think we talked about club vs state recognition but yes, the commitments in the VB process are much earlier than in football
If Fisher is 6'6", then she is not 6'4". He is a good 4 inches and possibly 5 inches taller than her in the picture. Maybe he is closer to the camera than her in the picture which would make him appear bigger.
You can be a very good club player that plays prep for a school that is pretty bad so that can drag on any statewide recognition.
First contact with a volleyball recruit is June 15th before their Junior season. Part of the club volleyball circuit are the recruiting showcases that typically happen the evening before the tournament gets under way. The players run through drills and coaches can show up and watch although a lot of these are now set up for streaming in case there are multiple events in a weekend and the coaches can't make it. There is usually a list of schools that will participate given out in advance. Of course the bigger tournaments will attract coaches who come to watch a particular player. For instance, I believe Jones played in the Steel City Freeze tournament at the convention center last January. Not sure if Fisher was there or not but that is a good example. Nike runs that tournament so there is also a highlight package that a player can purchase.
Most of what I mention above is more for players that are border line D1 and lower. There really aren't many girls that are going to attract major D1 recruiting attention so there is a bit of a "you know 'em when you see 'em" to this. Playing on a successful "elite" club that is competing for open division national championships will get you a lot of attention because those clubs hang their hat on advancing players but you have to be really good to even sniff a roster in those clubs.
