High School Team of the Week – 22-5A Friendswood Mustangs
Over the next few months I will be rolling out some articles that will recognize teams who have been playing exceptionally well this volleyball season. I will still be doing our regular highlight articles on multiple athletes for exposure, however…
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Continue ReadingOver the next few months I will be rolling out some articles that will recognize teams who have been playing exceptionally well this volleyball season. I will still be doing our regular highlight articles on multiple athletes for exposure, however I wanted to do some special articles on a few teams that we are getting to know quite well with Prep Dig TX. This week we will give special recognition to the Friendswood Mustangs Volleyball Team as they are our High School Team of the Week.
We have covered this program earlier in the spring. In that article we mentioned that they are located on the Southeast side of the outskirts of Houston. The Mustang program has owned their district for the last thirty years. They have a rich winning tradition in their volleyball program having made it to the Regional Finals thirteen times in the last twenty years. This program is pumping out deep runs into the playoffs year in and year out. This coming year should be no different as they return a lot of their team that was just crowned Regional Champions and made it to State last year.
This season they have turned it up a notch. They are currently undefeated in district 22-5A at 9-0 on the young season. Overall they are sitting at a record of 12-1. They are ranked as the number 4 team in the state according to the Texas Girls Coaches Association. This past week they swept a good Santa Fe program and won a tough 5 setter against a very scrappy Texas City team. They are showing once again that they are the cream of the crop in this district and they have a great shot at the state playoffs this year. Here are a few of the players that we wrote about previously in the spring:
Ashlyn Svoboda (2021) 5-10 Outside (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Northwestern State)
Miss Svoboda is currently unranked on our State Rankings but that will change once we update them next month. Stay tuned to see where the falls. Ashlyn has a very strong frame and utilizes it well on offense. She has great power on the pins and scores very efficiently. One thing that truly stands out is her court awareness and reaction time to dig hard driven balls. In the back row, she is always in the right place to dig. She collapses her body very well to dig the hard ball and softens the contact well. She plays on a very good AVA club team that has exceptional training. According to coach Paulk, Ashlyn is one of the most competitive kids that she has coached. She is a 6 rotation outside that is a primary passer and best defensive player on the Friendswood team. She was a captain this past season and will be looked heavily upon in the coming season. She has great ball control and will likely play libero in college where she has committed to Northwestern State University. She makes everyone on the court better and demands the best from her teammates. Ashlyn was a 2019 Regional Champion and State Qualifier. She was named to the 2019 UIL State All Tournament Team, 2019 TGCA All State, and 2019 TGCA All Star Team. As well as 2019 22-5A Offense MVP. Also she was named the GHVCA player of the year again in 2019. Her sophomore(2018) year she was 2018 TGCA, TAVC, VYPE All State, 2018 GHVCA Player of the year, 2018 All Galveston County, 2018 District MVP, and 2018 Houston Chronicle Newcomer of the year.
Alessandra Meoni (2021) 5-11 Right Side (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Alessandra moved with her family to the United States from Italy early August this past year. She has done a tremendous job helping Friendswood reach the state tournament. She completely dominated the regional tournament and helped them get to state. She is a 5’11 left handed right side hitter who plays 6 rotations. She has such raw power when she contacts that opponents must block well to slow her down. The best part of her offense has to be her timing. She is able to get on top of the ball and hit straight down when she wants to. She is a true competitor. Her dad was on the Italian Olympic team as a setter so volleyball runs deep in her genes. Ale was a 2019 Regional Champion, State Qualifier, named to the 2019 TGCA All State team, and 2019 District Newcomer of the year. She should have a fantastic senior season this coming year.
Kate Bueche (2022) 5-7 Libero (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Miss Bueche can fly. She is very quick off of the ground as a hitter and extremely fast around the court as a defender. She is blessed with amazing fast-twitch muscles that help her speed and agility. She is a lot of fun to watch on the court. She has a very nice jump float that falls right over the net. Kate was a primary passer the entire season. Played libero as a freshman and switched to outside at the beginning of her sophomore season. She switched back to libero towards the end of district play due to an injury to the starting libero and did an outstanding job through all of the playoffs. She is a tremendous athlete with an incredible vertical. She was named to the 1st team all district her freshman and sophomore seasons as well as All County 1st team. She was also named to Prep Volleyballs High Honorable mention team.
Sarah Sitton (2022) 6-2 Middle Blocker (HS: Friendswood/Club: Houston Stellar/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Sarah was a first year varsity member this year and did a great job for the Mustang Program. She consistently improved through the entire season and played her best games in the regional and state tournament. She was able to tally up 208 kills and 106 total blocks as a middle blocker in her lone season on Varsity. She has tremendous upside. She touched 9’10 as a freshman and is continuing to become a dominating force in the middle. She has also stepped into more of a leadership roll this winter/early spring and we look to continue that this fall. She was named to the Prep Volleyball Sophomore 79 Elite honorable mention list , 1st team all district, and academic all district this past season. The Mustangs are looking for her to improve on her great performance last year and she is ready to step up to the challenge.
Cierra Pesak (2023) 5-8 Outside (HS: Friendswood/Club: AVA-Absolute Volleyball/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Cici as her fam and friends call her has played both defensively and offensively on the vball court for her AVA club team. She has very fast footwork that allows her to transition very well off the net to attack. At Friendswood, Cierra played DS for the majority of the season before moving to the second outside position with two district games left due to an injury to another player. As a freshman she started and played six rotations throughout all of the playoffs and into the state tournament. She was a primary passer and played tremendous defense all season. Coach Paulk says that she has a very high volleyball IQ. She holds her teammates accountable on the court and goes all out always. She was named 2nd team all district and all county this past season. According to Coach, they will look to her heavily this coming year.
We will be publishing more articles weekly to give recognition to those teams and athletes who are playing great in their matches. Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite athletes. If you have anyone that you think deserves to be recognized as a player of the week, feel free to send me a message with their information. Or if you have anyone that you think have what it takes to be added to our database, please shoot me an email with some info at nov8vb@yahoo.com. As always, thanks for following our publication.