Annika Epstein '24 Recruiting Profile

I can honestly say that when I found my way to volleyball as a sport, it changed my life.  I love everything about the sport. The unique way the team has to collaborate on the court and the way in which the individual skill set of each player complements each other and make the team reach peak performance.  I'd humbly say that it would be hard to find a prospective player more dedicated to improving than myself.  I actively seek out opportunities to play at the high school and club level and also try to maximize time in the gym for informal workouts with my teammates.   Honestly, I didn't totally expect to start on varsity as a sophomore.  When I was thrust into that role, I am proud of the way I embraced it and rose to the occasion.  I ended up playing and starting as strong middle and I am pretty sure that I effectively earned my teammates trust and confidence to set me and rely on my blocking.  I improved greatly from the start of the season, and will continue to do so throughout the next few years of playing club and high school volleyball. I earned good stats throughout the season and had one of the top number of kills, one of the top hitting percentages, number of aces, and the highest amount of solo and assisted blocks by far on my team. This was a great accomplishment considering it was my first year on varsity, and being an underclassmen. This just goes to show the hard work I am willing to put in to achieve success. This is my first "normal" school year in terms of it being in person.  I am adjusting well and I am proud of the way I maintained honor roll grades even during a busy fall volleyball season during which our away bus sometimes got back to our school as late as 8:45pm.  I am very focused on achieving my goal of playing college volleyball.  And I am ready and eager to put in the necessary work to reach that level.