Under Armour All-American Match is Who's Who of high school volleyball

Friday's Under Armour All-American Match and Skills Competition in Seattle's Key Arena is a "who's who" in high school volleyball ... very like those who will be tomorrow's "who's who" of college stars.

The match will be sandwiched between the NCAA's Division 1 Volleyball Championship featuring its final four of No. 1 Texas, No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 2 Penn State and No. 3 Washington. The semifinals are Friday and the finals will be held Sunday.

This sixth annual event – sponsored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (ACVA) – includes a three-set match and individual skills competitions that display the abilities of these future standouts. The match will be nationally televised at 8 p.m. (PST).

Seven players who will show their skills on Friday will be highly interested in Thursday's semifinals match between Penn State and Washington as those collegiate powers will be their homes after their high school graduations.

Penn State has landed five Under Armour All-Americans and Washington three. All seven were chosen first team U-A All-Americans and six of those were named Max-Preps All-Americans.

Heading to Penn State are 6-4 middle blocker Haleigh Washington of Doherty (Colorado Springs, Colo.) 6-1 setter Bryanna Weiskircher of Boylan (Rockford, Ill), 6-1 outside hitter Simone Lee of Menomonee Falls (Minn.), 6-2 middle hitter Nia Reed of Immaculate Heart (Washington Township, N.J.) and 6-2 outside hitter Ali Franti of Richmond Burton (Richmond, Ill).

Washington, Lee, Reed and Franti were also honored as Gatorade players of the year for their states.

No doubt pulling for Washington will be future Huskies Crissy Jones, a 6-3 outside hitter from Los Alamitos (Calif.) and 6-2 power hitter and homegrown product Courtney Schwann of Bellarmine Prep (Tacoma, Wash.). Schwann was named Gatorade POY for Washington.

Texas will have one big fan in Cat McCoy, a 5-7 libero from Carroll (Southlake, Texas).

Penn State also has a sixth Under Armour All-American signee as Heidi Thelan of Notre Dame Academy (Park Hills, Ky.) is an alternate for Saturday's competition.

To say Penn State has the top signing class from 2014 would not be an understatement.

And if you need more "Who's Who," there will be five other Gatorade state POYs on the court Saturday – 6-4 Christina Ambrose of Winter Park (Fla.), 5-9 setter Kali Eaken of Bishop Meige (Roseland Park, Kan.), 6-2 hitter Luisa Schirmer of Sutherland (Pittsford, N.Y.), 6-1 hitter Carli Snyder (Dakota (Macomb, Mich.) and Chattahoochee's 6-1 setter Haley Templeton (Johns Creek, Ga.).

Ambrose has signed with Purdue, Templeton with Miami, Eaken with Kansas State, Snyder with Florida and Schirmer with Ohio State.

All total, 19 MaxPreps All-Americans will be suited up on Friday.

The West Team will include: Brit Abercrombime (Carlsbad, Calif.), Stephanie Aipie (Round Rock, Texas), Reily Buechler (San Diego, Calif.), Kali Eaken (Roeland Park, Kan.), Alyssa Goehner (Lakeville, Minn.), Marion Hazelwood (Mt. Belview, Texas), Crissy Jones (Los Alamitos, Calif.), Ashlie Reasor (San Antonio, Texas), Courtney Schwann (Tacoma, Wash.), Ashten Smith-Gooden (Cucamonga, Calif.), and Hayleigh Washington (Colorado Springs, Colo.).

The East Team will include Christina Ambrose (Winter Park, Fla.), Courtney Crable (Louisville, Ky.), Lydia Dimke (Blaine, Minn.), Ali Dimke (Richmond, Ill.), Lauryn Gilis (New Castle, Ind.), Simone Lee (Menomonee Falls, Wis.), Beth Nordhorn (Winter Park, Fla.), Nia Reed (Washington Township, N.J.), Luisa Schirmer (Pittsford, N.Y.), Carli Snyder (Macomb, Mich.), Hayley Templeton (Johns Creek, Ga.) and Bryanna Weiskircher (Rockford, Ill.).

Coaches for the match will be ACVA's National co-Coaches of the Year – Kim Lauwers will coach the East, while Jodie DeGroot will lead the West.

DeGroot led Bellarmine (Tacoma, Wash.) to the Washington 4A title enroute to a 35-0 season and a No. 4 national ranking in MaxPreps final Xcellent Volleyball Poll.

Lauwers has had 15 years of success at Dimond (Acnhorage, Ak.) where she has led the team to six state titles.

The four final teams seeking the NCAA title are loaded with former MaxPreps All-Americans, including a pair of freshmen in Lauren Carlini (Wisconsin) and Chiaka Ogbogu (Texas). They were first team MaxPreps All-Americans last year. Carlini is from West Aurora, Ill. and Ogbogu is from Coppell, Texas.

Four other former MaxPreps All-Americans playing in the NCAA final four this weekend – Washington's Krista VanSant (Redlands, Calif.), Penn State's Micha Hancock (Edmond, Okla.) and Longhorns Bailey Wester (St. Paul's, Baltimore, Md.), Molly McCage (Klein Collins, Texas) – received NCAA All-American honors this year.

The tallest player on the court Friday will be Winter Park's other front row burden (for opponents) Beth Norhorn, a 6-6 middle who has signed with North Carolina.

The shortest will be McCoy. She and Eaken will be the only non six footers in action.

Height and honors aside, Friday's event is a "who's who" of high school and college volleyball.

More Who's Who: MaxPreps 2012 All-Americans Ebony Nwanebu (USC), Kadie Rolfzen (Nebraska), Brittany Thomas Alabama), Briana Holman (LSU), Alex Holston (Florida), Carly Kan (Missouri), Abbey Bessler (Xavier) and Autumn Bailey (Marquette) were also named NCAA All-Americans.

Nwanebu, a 6-4 outside hitter, was named first team A-A and NCAA Freshman Volleyball Player of the Year. She was the lone freshman honored first team. Carlini and Ogbogu were second team and Rolfzen was third team.

Rolfzen was half of MaxPreps 2012 Player of the Year as she shared that honor with twin sister Amber Rolfzen, also playing at Nebraska. They are from LaVista South High School (Papillon, Ne.).