MGVB Film Breakdown: Defensive Specialists

The North Texas volleyball team enters the 2020 season with high expectations. The Mean Green return 10 lettermen and all six starters from a 2019 squad that finished 17-11 and third in Conference USA. Along with a wealth of experience, UNT welcomes six new members to its program in one of the most talented recruiting classes during head coach Andrew Palileo's seven-year tenure.

If that isn't enough, the 2020 senior class of Valerie Valerian, Barbara Teakell, Miranda Youmans, Kaliegh Skopal and Henrianna Ibarra has the opportunity to make history. If the Mean Green win a conference title this season, the 2020 seniors would be the only class in program history to win two separate conference championships.

As the first serve of the season is just over one month away, we wanted to break down several clips of last year's film to look at what the Mean Green return at each position in 2020. In the final story of our four-part series, we'll take a look at the defensive specialists/liberos.

Only clips of returning players are provided. Incoming freshmen will be included at the bottom of each breakdown.

#3 Henrianna Ibarra | Redshirt Junior | DS/L | 5'8
2017 stats (missed 2018 & 2019 due to injury)
MP SP DIG DIG/S A SA SE RE
31 103 320 3.11 53 28 44 9

Henrianna Ibarra's collegiate career has been a wild ride. The San Antonio-native is part of the 2017 recruiting class that played a vital part of the program's only Conference USA title run in 2017.

During that championship season, Ibarra played in 31 matches and led the team with 320 digs as a true freshman. She was ranked fourth among all Mean Green freshmen in digs and aces (28) in a single season since 2001. Ibarra was also named the best libero at the Maroon Classic at Mississippi State.

However, things have taken a turn the past two seasons. The redshirt junior tore her ACL during the spring of 2018 and 2019, which has kept her off the court the past two years.

Although the rehab process has been tough both physically and mentally, Ibarra said she is ready to return to the court and compete for another championship in 2020. Let's take a look at a clip from a 2017 match against Rice.

The first technique to notice about Ibarra (green jersey) is her great posture. In this position, the defender is always ready to step to the ball and defend a zone. Before the hitter makes contact with the ball, watch how Ibarra moves into the correct position and establishes a strong platform to collect the dig and make a great pass to former setter Karley York.

Although Ibarra has been absent from play the last two seasons, don't be surprised to see her back in form when September rolls around.

#1 Aleeyah Galdeira | Sophomore | DS/L | 5'6
2019 stats:
MP        SP      DIG         DIG/S               A             SA             SE              RE
26        109     332         3.05              5             9             16            26

Aleeyah Galdeira was a huge part of the Mean Green's success in conference play last season.

The sophomore from Waimanalo, Hawaii, made a strong case for the 2019 C-USA All-Freshman Team after finishing with 332 digs, which ranked ninth in all of C-USA and third among Mean Green freshmen since 2001 for digs in a single season.

Galdeira also contributed a season-high 26 digs in a thrilling win over Pepperdine. We'll take a look at one of those digs in the clip below.

Similar to Ibarra, Galdeira (green jersey) does a great job of maintaining great posture and moving to the right place before the hitter contacts the ball. When the hitter finally contacts the ball, Galdeira takes a quick first step and maintains her balance before lowering her body to the floor and taking a good angle for the dig.

Let's take a look at another play later in the match.

In this sequence, Galdeira starts to move into an open space as soon as the setter contacts the ball. She does this because the block was open, which means that the hitter had a gap to hit the ball through the front row.

The Pepperdine hitter proceeded to place the ball in the aforementioned gap, but Galdeira was already there to defend the ball in the right spot because she recognized the block was open. She then maintains a strong platform to make a great pass to Skopal.

#4 Emily Ah Leong | Freshman | DS/L | 5'8
High school stats:
SP DIG DIG/S A SA
125 972 3.05 114 83

From last month's freshman breakdown:
Ah Leong was one of the first in this class to commit to North Texas. As an athletic player with a tremendous touch on the back row, Ah Leong became one of the more well-recognized recruits in the Palileo era and will have a chance to immediately step on the floor as a true freshman.

While competing at nearby Boswell High School – which is only 27 miles from Denton – Ah Leong was considered one of the top 150 seniors in the nation by PrepVolleyball during 2019. In 2018, she received the PrepVolleyball 2018 All-American High HM award.

During her senior season at Boswell, she led the Fort Worth-area with 972 digs and added 83 aces and 114 assists. Although primarily playing on the back row, Ah Leong had 14 games with 25 or more kills. Ah Leong's 2019 performance earned her a spot on the 2019 TGCA Class 5A All-State team, the 2019 Fort Worth Star-Telegram All-area first team and was named the 2019 District 7-5A Defensive MVP.

She would finish her career at Boswell with 2,147 digs, 1,007 kills and 235 aces.

However, Ah Leong's success goes further than the high school realm. While playing club for Texas Image Volleyball – the No. 20 ranked volleyball club in the nation in 2017 – Ah Leong helped TIV to a 2018 16U AAU National Runner-Up.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Players Mentioned

Aleeyah Galdeira

Henrianna Ibarra

Barbara Martin

Kaliegh Skopal

Valerie Valerian

Karley York

Miranda Youmans

Upcoming Events

University of North Texas Athletics