Lewis-Palmer standout Alexa Smith is one of the top volleyball prospects in Colorado. Only a junior, Smith played on the USA Youth National Team this past summer.
File photo by Matt Daniels
At 6-foot-1, sometimes it appears that
Alexa Smith is looking down at the world beneath her, picking and choosing certain aspects of life as she pleases.
She's far too humble to make such a comparison, but in some ways, it's true.
The
Lewis-Palmer (Monument, Colo.) junior outside hitter, who played for the USA Volleyball Girls Youth National Team this summer, towers above opponents. She fiercely spikes down, igniting an echo seldom heard in Colorado gyms.
Sometimes there are baseball players whose bat just makes a different sound when they hit they ball. More powerful, more solid. That is how Smith is when hitting the volleyball.
Opponents have felt the wrath of her ferocious kills, hoping their grille isn't where Smith chooses to hit the ball.
The modest Smith also seemingly has the world in her hands in regards to where she'll play next. Division I programs are clamoring for her services. She hopes to make a decision by the end of the school year, but is still sorting through a laundry list of high-caliber programs.
"I just visited Michigan, and I'm going to Purdue this weekend and Minnesota in a couple weekends," Smith said. "Then also CSU, and there's a few others."
Smith says that unassumingly, as if she doesn't want to make herself sound like a big deal. But although she won't say it, she is a big deal. Just ask her Lewis-Palmer coach, Susan Odenbaugh.
"I could probably talk all day about her," Odenbaugh said. "The first thing is that she's just a strong six-position player. The last few years, she hasn't only led our team — and ranked really high in the state — in kills, but she's had more digs than our liberos and has the highest passing percentage on the team."
It isn't just Smith's superior athletic skills that make her stand out.
"She's got one of the highest volleyball IQs of a kid her age. She just sees the floor so well," Odenbaugh said. "She sees the open spots and can hit them. She's got such a versatility with her shots that she's really hard to read and to block."
Smith walked into the Lewis-Palmer gym as a freshman and became an immediate starter. Not only that, it was readily apparent that she was the type of player who opponents would have to double- and triple-block.
The Rangers went 14-15 Smith's freshman season, but she recorded a ridiculous 545 kills. Last season as a sophomore, she recorded 489 kills and the Rangers developed into one of the state's best. They finished 24-5 after reaching the Class 4A championship game, where they lost to Colorado Springs Metro League-rival Cheyenne Mountain.
The ascension has continued this season, as Lewis-Palmer entered Thursday 12-1 with the lone loss to 5A powerhouse Doherty (Colorado Springs). Smith already has accumulated 196 kills, 95 digs, and for good measure, 21 aces.
"It's so much fun to play in front of your whole student body," Smith said. "We have such good fans that they come to all of our home and away games. You don't get that in club."
Smith relished her opportunity to play with the USA youth team over the summer, in which
she was accompanied by fellow Coloradoan Jordyn Poulter of Eaglecrest (Aurora). The squad earned a silver medal in the FIVB Girls' Youth World Championships during the summer.
"It was amazing," Smith said. "I learned so much in one month of just training with them and then going to Thailand to play. It was a lot different because the national play was a whole different game than it is over here."
Asked when the revelation hit her that, wow, she could go somewhere with volleyball, Smith couldn't pinpoint a moment.
"I don't think it's really even hit me yet," she said. "Every day I go into practice thinking that it's another day to get better, to be the best player I can be."
When asked to assess her biggest strengths and shortcomings as she develops into a college player, Smith lauded her versatility as her chief strength and said her defense, both in the backcourt and blocking, could qualify as her weakness.
Odenbaugh respectfully disagrees.
"There's not a weakness at all in her play," Odenbaugh said. "I think the one thing that probably separates her from a lot of athletes who are at her caliber is her humility. She puts her teammates first and gets kind of embarrassed by all the accolades she's received."
Smith might have to get used to the attention. There is plenty more to come.
