Adam Hughes is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View High Schoolfor AZPreps365.com

Four out of six Mountain View starters are bound to play for Grand Canyon and Arizona Christian (ACU).

The Toros (9-5) have seniors Aubrey Bellus, Jordyn Decker, Sydney Wade, and junior Alayna Austin who are either committed or signed letters of intents to those schools. 

Their first-year head coach Lee Golden inherited most of these players this year, but was no stranger to their talents as a volleyball club coach. 

Senior setter Decker will be in the sandbox with the GCU beach volleyball team next season. 

Decker explained that her club coach made the difference by helping her get in touch with the GCU coach Abra Rummel. After several calls, and making time to watch Decker play, and her campus visit drew Decker to commit.

“When I went on the visit I really fell in love with the culture and I love the coach,” Decker said.

She further explained that she truly connected with the coaches and the girls making the decision of GCU easy.

GCU had a different approach to recruiting junior libero Alayna Austin and senior middle Aubrey Bellus to their program.

Austin had a connection with Rummel through emails and films after showing what she had for at nationals in July. After a short official visit to GCU, the commitment was finalized. Going to GCU was important for Austin as the Christian values and staying close to home were the key to agreeing early on to play there.

Bellus had a few other colleges offers including Utah State and Wyoming before she committed to GCU in August.

“I waited it out just to see all of my options,” Bellus said. I ended up kind of where I wanted to be … mainly it had to do with location, what mattered the most to me for college, and coaching staff and GCU had all three of these for me.”

Senior middle Wade committed to play at ACU after her counselor made the recommendation. ACU girls volleyball head coach Micah Briscoe invited Wade to play with her team during Wade's campus visit. That made Wade's decision easy.

“Talking with my family we really thought a Christian school would be a really good route for me,” Wade said. “I’m a Christian and I really like that environment, and I was aiming to go to a school like that.”

All these young women use this as motivation to push themselves to play harder to assist them to be confident for when they go play as freshman soon. Also, all of them see this as a comfort having a future in volleyball.