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Create a Player ProfileClass of 2027 Top 10 Power Couples Ready to Impact Programs

Top 10 Power Couples of Class of 2027
- LSU: The Livings’ Twins and Janiah Randle. The Tigers add what could potentially be an entirely new front row, but they also add two immediate athletes who will push for court time the day they arrive in Baton Rouge, with Nyla Living and Randle. We could have very easily thrown in the first commit to this class (Sophia Dostic-Setter). This is the class where huge things are expected in Tiger Nation.
2. Texas A+M: When the #1 Setter in the class gets teamed up with a smooth, offensive minded middle and one of the biggest potential athletes in the class, well that means you get excited if you are an Aggie Coach, booster, fan and we put them high on about every list we think of for the 2027 class. Sophee Peterson is talented enough, but give her a little extra motivation and let her stay at home to be a state hero- to be the one… watch out. The Aggies won a couple of big recruiting battles for Incinelli, whose stock just kept going up the longer the club season went on. Then the evolution of “The General” over the last year is pretty amazing. You give her two more years of intense training, let alone a couple of years in college, and the Aggies might not need pins.
3. Michigan State: DeBoer and Forelli. Both of these two fit the grit of their boss to a T. They aer the foundation of the first class, now of course with transfers and an existing team; this isn’t an expansion NHL franchise, but this is a combo that can come in and do some good things together for several years, but more importantly I think they symbolize a couple of huge recruiting Ws for the program. First-year coaches usually do not come in and get these kids, considering who MSU was up against. That is why this duo is so big in our eyes.
4. UCLA: Matavao and Ross, I caught a little grief at Nationals, but at least someone was listening or reading when I broke down the commitment importance of Wes to UCLA, and I said, “UCLA just won the PR battle for a few years. You can go hang a billboard of Westley up in LA right now with UCLA blue and start gaining fans.” So her signing is enormous in that sense, not to mention her talent, and they kept a top California talent home. Combining Matavao with Ross could be a very dynamic duo. Ross is someone who was overlooked by higher-ranked schools simply because of her height. The kid is extremely athletic and has springs for days, always jumping. She matches Matavao’s energy (which is almost impossible, but not a bad thing for a gym). The staff will figure out ways to get her to score in a college match, and she is too athletic not to be effective on the block.
PR Win Bruins, Locker room Win Bruins, Culture Win Bruins. WIN BRUINS
5. Boston College Eagles: Sophia Squared I have been so pumped to write this for a day, but yes, BC Eagles Volleyball with the Power Couple of Sophia Albaugh and Sophia Smith. BC had a nice class in 2026 as well, but this was newsworthy, and way to go, ladies, for taking the shot at being difference makers at a new program. When a program like BC reaches pins with a combined PPV average of 210, that's huge news, and they should come in and press for court time immediately. I love that they chose BC (you need to get a Twitter account).
6. Michigan: Maggie Kurpeikis and Kiersten Moore make for a combo of solid volleyball players, and again, Kurpeikis has to be one of the biggest recruiting W’s in the Virtue Era. I know she was being recruited by several of the Big Ten schools and multiple other P4 schools in the Midwest. Then, getting the solid setter combo to come along with Kurpeikis gives them that nucleus to start building around.
7. Creighton: Wallraff and Hudgins, hey, you always need arms, and the Bluejays grabbed two of the Top 20 in the class on day 1. Reloading after a big graduation last season was goal #1 for Creighton, and these two athletes fit the bill. Athletic, big arms, and versatile. Both can jump and serve dynamically. Both fit the type of hitters Creighton has brought in before, and as Hudgins said in our interview, “the Creighton record with training outside speaks for itself.” Well, this looks like the next combo of potential All-American Outsides from Creighton, then!
8. Arizona: Welker and Udo-Ema. I’ve talked to both of these athletes several times over the past week, but I’ll explain my love of this combo once again. This combo has excellent potential as a team for me because it is an amazing fit for both of these athletes. This conference is the right fit and the plan this staff appears to be on (I don’t know them that well, but watching their moves from 10,000 ft). I like how both Tinsley and Asia FIT into the plan.
Then the attitude of each works. We haven’t heard hardly anything from Tinsley; she does her thing and puts in her work. But don’t let that fool you - she works as hard as anyone in this class. Mac and I did some research on her earlier this year, and the girl puts in a lot of hours! Asia is all over social media, but again, she works.
There are Fit Successes in recruiting, and I think these two could be perfect examples of that in a few years.
9. North Carolina: Marlie Smith and May Durrill some coach one time said “It don’t matter how you get there, just get there” meaning at the end of the day it doesn’t exactly matter where you recruit from or what the team looks like get some good volleyball players on your roster, coach the heck out of them, have them get along with each other and win as many matches as you can. I think that is what North Carolina is doing. I’ve been talking about my thoughts on Marie Smith for a year, so I'll leave it at that. They landed another coach, and the ultimate winner and floor general, A+, then paired her up with May Durrill. People say, 'Who?' Well, about three times this year, when I went over to evaluate her middle hitter clubmate, I heard multiple college staffers comment to each other how much “the other middle keeps getting better and better every week.” I also am pretty sure this Durrill may have been extremely productive a couple of the matches that watched. So, you're getting a middle with a high ceiling, and it may take a year, but it can be fruitful and productive. Again, that is how you stockpile a team. One productive player at a time.