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ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 85 f ANOTHER BIG CLASS A year after signing the most highly touted class in program history, Purdue has a strong influx of talent entering its program yet again in 2015. Outside hitter Alexa Smith, middle blocker Blake Mohler and defensive specialist/libero Brooke Peters were named to PrepVolleyball's Top 250 Senior Aces list and honored as Under Armour High School All-Americans. Middle blocker Shavona Cuttino also has committed to Purdue but not yet signed. "That's a good class, and when we get all of them on the board, they will be a top 7 or 8 class in the country," said Shondell, speaking about the trio of signees. "Put that on top of the third-best class in the country a year ago, it helps give you the ammunition you need, and then our senior class is loaded with great players in Annie Drews, Sam Epe- nesa, Kaisley Fisher and Amanda Neill." Shondell recently gave a player-by-player breakdown of the three individuals who signed their letters of intent: Blake Mohler | 6-2 | MB | Ocean Springs, Miss./Ocean Springs "Blake is a great athlete, 6-1, 6-1-and-a-half, physical player. Great arm swing. Has a bazooka for an arm, just pounds the ball. Jumps well off of two feet and one foot. A lot of time your middle hitters are really good off of one or they're good off of two … Blake is really good at both. She can jump well and hit the ball high and hard off of two feet in front of the setter, and she's also really good coming from behind off of one. I'm really encouraged by that. The more you can do, the harder you are to defend. "Blocking is an area she just isn't as good at yet. I just think she needs more time, more experience and continue to get training on that. "(She's) a livewire, a lot of fun to have on the team. I think she has a very high ceiling as an athlete in the Big Ten." Brooke Peters | 5-8 | DS/Libero | Avon, Ind./Avon "Brooke is a player I think we will take full advantage of. She is kind of a no-nonsense player. She's a tough, tough, kid. I think we need some of that. We need someone who's going to come in and really be serious about getting better and really serious about taking our team to a new level. She brings that mentality. She played on an Avon team that was really good and the MVP on a team that had a couple of top-50 Prep Volleyball athletes. A player that was more of a DS and a libero than anything else. I think that sends a pretty clear message of what her teammates thought about her as far as being a leader and a great player. "I'm sure her plans are to fight to be on the floor right away. She's coming a semester early and I think that will benefit her. For her to come in and start in January, be able to (participate) in spring season, be able to train with us, be here over the summer, she'll be way ahead of where she'd be had she waited until Aug. 10 to get here." Alexa Smith | 6-1 | OH | Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer "Alexa is just a great person. Anybody you talk to about Alexa Smith will go on and on about her personality, her work ethic, all the things she's done in Colorado Springs in that community. USA Today came out with a seven-player All-America team and she was one of them. As a junior she played on the USA Junior National team and she was a year younger than most of the other players. Danielle Cuttino was on that team and didn't get a chance to play a lot; Alexa Smith started every match on the left side for that team. "She's not 6-foot-4 touching 10-foot-7. She's 6-foot-1 and touches about 10 feet. It's what she does with her ability that will impress you. She's somebody who has the ability to be a six-rotation player here. Ariel Turner was the last outside hitter we had who could stay on the floor all six rotations. "She'll have some competition when she gets here." — Travis Baugh Blake Mohler is a 2015 signee.