Volleyball Season 4: Movers of Week 2
The Gold and Orange squads made the biggest impact on the leaderboard in Week Two as Team Abercrombie and Team De La Cruz-Mejía proved to be dominant.
Here’s how each team shook out the win points:
- Team Abercrombie: 3-0, won 6 sets (420 win points)
- Team De La Cruz-Mejía: 2-1, won 6 sets (360 wins points)
- Team Nootsara: 1-2, won 2 sets (140 win points)
- Team Caffey: 0-3, won 4 sets (160 win points)
Mover of the Week: Willow Johnson
Up 16 spots and moving to 13th overall on the leaderboard is Willow Johnson. The opposite made the biggest leap in the rankings from Week One to Week Two from being heavily involved in Team De La Cruz-Mejía’s offense.
Comparatively, Johnson played in all nine sets during Week Two, three more than the opening week of matches. She was targeted with 35 more attack attempts resulting in 33 kills. What was crucial for Johnson was her effectiveness from the pin — even with more swings, she kept her attack errors to only six.
Johnson played the back row as well, upping her digs from six in the first three games to 18 in the latest matches.
Abercrombie dazzles into first place
There’s a new Gold team captain in town and her name is Brittany Abercrombie.
In her first week as a captain, Abercrombie led her team to a 3-0 record and is now one of only two undefeated players left on the season (Paige Briggs-Romine has also not had a loss). She has tallied 15 or more kills in every match this season.
As the top point earner of the week, Abercrombie’s earnings broke down to 420 win points, 413 stat points, and 120 MVP points from earning first-place honors every game.
After a stunning Week One, Abercrombie showcased in Week Two that she could shine even brighter.
- Week One attack attempts: 123 – Week Two attack attempts: 118
- Week One kills: 46 – Week Two kills: 48
- Week One errors: 7 – Week Two errors: 4
Abercrombie stands with one of the best hitting percentages in the league at .315 with 241 swings on the season.
Duos Divided: Member-Meneh and Drews become captains
Because the Gold and Orange squads dominated the win points, the dynamic duos of both teams will be split up by the top four on the leaderboard and captain their own teams. Leketor Member-Meneh was an effective complement to Bethania De La Cruz-Mejía and will lead the Blue squad in Week Three. The outside had 33 kills in three games and earned MVP honors in two matches.
Dani Drews improved her hitting percentage from .150 to .240 in Week 2 and also earned MVP honors twice. She’ll be split up from Abercrombie and captain the Purple team.
Player to Watch: Madi Kingdon Rishel
At the conclusion of the week, Madi Kingdon Rishel was the only athlete not on the Orange or Gold team to stand in the top 10. Ranked eighth overall, she moved up four spots despite collecting the fewest win points. Regardless of her team winning matches, Kingdon Rishel was an MVP of every match and accumulated 687 stat points. She’s third in the league in both total stat points and MVP points but is tied for last in win points.
If she can up that leaderboard category on a winning team, Kingdon Rishel has a shot to become a captain in Week Four.
Week Three Schedule
The competition for Week Three starts on Friday, Oct.18 with a doubleheader on Bally Sports and VBTV. Team Member-Meneh will take on Team De La Cruz-Mejía at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT followed by Team Drews vs. Abercrombie at 10:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. PT.
Tune in to see who remains at the top and who climbs their way up.
Savanna Collins is the Senior Reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Twitter @savannaecollins.
