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State champions lead JWS’ Volleyball All-American Second Team

Ursuline’s Brooke Bultema will play college volleyball at Kentucky next season. (Tony Tribble for The Enquirer / USA TODAY Sports)

With the high school volleyball season wrapped up, Just Women’s Sports has new honors to bestow upon the nation’s top high school student-athletes.

JWS is proud to announce its All-American girls volleyball teams, honoring 24 of the top high school players in the nation, including 10 seniors on the Second Team.

Learn more about these outstanding athletes below, including what college they plan to attend. Find our selections for the All-American First Team here and look out for our profile of the JWS Player of the Year next week.

Second Team

Eloise Brandewie, Bishop Hartley (Ohio), Sr. | MB

278 kills, 97 blocks, 66 digs, 22 aces

Ohio State

The Under Armour All-American led the Hawks on a program-record 14-match winning streak, averaging four kills per set at an incredibly efficient .554 hitting percentage.

Brooke Bultema, Ursuline Academy (Ohio), Sr. | MB

376 kills, 107 blocks, 33 aces

Kentucky

The 6-foot-3 force averaged more than four kills and one block per set, leading the Lions to a Division I state championship and a top-15 national ranking.

Saige Damrow, Howards Grove (Wis.), Sr. | Libero/OH

301 kills, 329 digs, 73 aces

Wisconsin

Standing at 5-foot-8, Damrow averaged 4.4 kills per set and 4.8 digs per set in leading Howards Grove to a state championship.

Charlie Fuerbringer, Mira Costa (Calif.), Jr. | S

119 kills, 284 digs, 72 blocks, 34 aces

Wisconsin

Fuerbringer quarterbacked a Mustangs offense that averaged 13 kills per set while ascending to a top-10 national ranking.

Nayeli Gonzalez, Cornerstone Christian (Texas), Sr. | OH/MH

573 kills, 117 blocks, 91 digs

Iowa State

The leader of the nation’s No. 2 team, Gonzalez averaged more than four kills per set as the Warriors beat California powers Marymount and Mira Costa.

Ashley Mullen, Liberty (Mo.), Sr. | S

1,124 assists, 202 digs, 71 kills, 65 aces, 37 blocks

UCLA

The Under Armour All-American averaged more than 10 assists per set, leading the Blue Jays to a 35-win season and surpassing 3,000 career assists.

Skyler Pierce, Olathe Northwest (Kan.), Jr. | OH

488 kills, 248 digs, 44 blocks, 44 aces

Nebraska

One of the top junior recruits in the country, Pierce has already surpassed 1,000 career kills and still has one high school season remaining.

Jurnee Robinson, Mauldin (S.C.), Sr. | OH

538 kills, 324 digs 51 aces, 51 blocks

LSU

Robinson, an Under Armour All-American, averaged over five kills per set on a .446 hitting percentage and chipped in defensively with more than three digs pet set to lead Mauldin to a state title.

Ava Sarafa, Bloomfield Hills Marian (Mich.), Sr. | S

1,359 assists, 291 digs 98 kills, 54 blocks, 47 aces

Kentucky

One of the nation’s assist leaders, Sarafa quarterbacked a dominant offense that propelled the Mustangs to a third consecutive Division I state title.

Kyndal Stowers, Guyer (Texas), Sr. | OH

274 kills, 170 digs, 35 blocks, 19 aces

Baylor

Stowers averaged 5.5 kills per set on a .348 hitting percentage, leading Guyer to the state quarterfinals.

Sydney Schnichels, Willmar (Minn.), Sr. | OH

490 kills, 232 digs, 51 aces, 28 blocks

Minnesota

Schnichels was named Minnesota’s Ms. Baden Volleyball after a stellar five-year career, finishing with 1,324 kills, 697 digs and 170 blocks.

Ella Swindle, Rock Bridge (Mo.), Sr. | S

841 assists, 230 digs, 171 kills, 81 blocks, 41 aces

Texas

Another Under Armour All-American, Swindle averaged nearly nine assists this season and finished her high school career with more than 3,000 assists.

Phillip Suitts is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. He has worked at a variety of outlets, including The Palm Beach Post and Southeast Missourian, and done a little bit of everything from reporting to editing to running social media accounts. He was born in Atlanta but currently lives in wintry Philadelphia. Follow Phillip on Twitter @PhillipSuitts.

NWSL Adopts “High Impact Player” Rule Despite Union Opposition

Washington Spirit star Trinity Rodman warms up prior to their 2025 NWSL semifinal.
The new NWSL "High Impact Player" rule will go into effect in July 2026. (Scott Taetsch/NWSL via Getty Images)

The NWSL has made a decision, as the league officially moves forward with its new "High Impact Player" rule despite stated opposition from the players union.

Announced last week, the rule change allows clubs to exceed to the NWSL salary cap by up to $1 million to attract or retain players that meet one of eight qualifying metrics set by the league.

Those metrics include major media award rankings like the 30-player Ballon d'Or shortlist and ESPN FC's Top 50 Football Players, as well as marketing power, top USWNT minutes, and end-of-year NWSL awards.

Developed with Washington Spirit superstar — and current free agent — Trinity Rodman and her potential contract in mind, the "High Impact Player" rule will not go into effect until July 1st, 2026.

Meanwhile, the NWSLPA has spoken out against the mechanism, proposing instead to up the salary cap by $1 million without league-imposed spending regulations.

"Under federal labor law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion," the union wrote on Wednesday.

Additionally, per The Athletic, NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke expressed concerns that the rule ties top athlete pay, in part, to player valuations in third party publications — a move that externally defines who a club can consider "high impact."

Led by six Kansas City athletes and five from Gotham FC, just 27 current NWSL players across 10 of the 16 clubs in the expanded 2026 season meet the new HIP qualifying criteria — though all teams could use the mechanism to attract a new athlete to the league.

In a growing global market, the NWSL could be falling into a trap of half-measures, as the union pushes back with league parity potentially on the line.

Report: Kansas City Current Taps Ex-MLS Boss Chris Armas as Head Coach

Colorado Rapids head coach Chris Armas claps on the sideline of a 2025 MLS match.
Projected new Kansas City Current head coach Chris Armas most recently managed MLS club Colorado Rapids. (Omar Vega/Getty Images)

The Kansas City Current have apparently found a new manager, with ESPN reporting last week that the 2025 NWSL Shield-winners will bring on former MLS head coach Chris Armas to lead the team in 2026.

Armas built his career in the MLS, coaching the New York Red Bulls from 2018 to 2020 before taking over Toronto FC in 2021, then spending the last three years heading up the Colorado Rapids.

The ex-USMNT player also has experience in the women's game at the college level, leading the Division II Adelphi University women's soccer team from 2011 to 2014.

Despite their many victories in 2025, the Current found themselves without a coach after third-year boss Vlatko Andonovski moved into a sporting director role with the club in November.

ESPN reported that Kansas City chose Armas over internal candidates like assistants Milan Ivanovic and ex-Angel City and Gotham manager Freya Coombe.

"I want my staff and people I've worked with to become successful coaches. These are things I'm very passionate about and want to be able to execute," Andonovski told ESPN last month.

Armas would be the first former MLS coach to make the leap to the NWSL, with the winds of change in Kansas City blowing stronger than anticipated.

US Ski Star Mikaela Shiffrin Wins 6th Straight World Cup Slalom

US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates a 2025 FIS Alpine World Cup win.
US skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin has yet to lose a slalom event this World Cup season. (GEORG HOCHMUTH / APA / AFP via Getty Images)

With the 2026 Winter Olympics fast approaching, US skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin has started the 2025/26 FIS World Cup cycle in top form — particularly in her favored slalom event.

Closing out last season with a victory, Shiffrin is currently on a multi-event winning streak, earning her sixth straight slalom title in Semmering, Austria, on Sunday.

"It was a really hard day today, tough conditions, a really big fight, and the pressure's on… I did my best, best possible run," Shiffrin said afterwards.

Momentum is on her side, with Shiffrin set to enter the 2026 Winter Games in Italy as the winningest skier in World Cup history, surpassing Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark's 86 wins in March 2023 and becoming the first skier to reach 100 World Cup victories earlier this year.

Sunday's race marked the 30-year-old's 106th career World Cup title, with Shiffrin looking to add to her ever-growing historic record with three more slalom events scheduled before the Olympic women's Alpine skiing events kick off on February 8th.

The 2014 Olympic slalom champion and 2018 Winter Games giant slalom gold medalist is aiming to return to the podium after failing to medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Shiffrin will likely hit the slopes again next weekend, when the women's FIS World Cup lands in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for a giant slalom and slalom competition.

Top 5 High School Recruit Jerzy Robinson Commits to South Carolina

Team USA guard Jerzy Robinson poses with a basketball ahead of a 2025 FIBA U-19 tournament.
Team USA U-19 star Jerzy Robinson is South Carolina basketball's top-ranked high school recruit out of the Class of 2026. (Yaroslava Nemesh/FIBA via Getty Images)

South Carolina basketball is stocking up, as top-ranked high school senior Jerzy Robinson announced her commitment to join the head coach Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks last Tuesday.

"I chose South Carolina because I had a sense of peace when it came down to the decision for me," Robinson told ESPN. "When I visited South Carolina, I was already home. I was already valued there.... I felt like this was where I needed to be for the next four years."

A 6-foot-2 guard who averaged 27 points and 10.2 rebounds in her junior season at Los Angeles's Sierra Canyon High School, Robinson is now the highest-ranked Class of 2026 recruit heading to South Carolina — as well as the final Top 5 player to make a college decision after also visiting No. 1 UConn and No. 5 LSU.

Robinson first made a name for herself at the youth level, winning three gold medals and the 2025 U-19 FIBA World Cup with Team USA.

The young talent also inked one of the first-ever shoe sponsorships for a high school player, signing an NIL deal with Nike in November 2024.

"Basketball has always been my love and my passion," she said. "To see it pay off and the hard work and the hours pay off, in the sense of I get to play for one of the best universities in the country, I just have so much gratitude."