Rising Star - Jillian Forrest

This weekend I had the pleasure of chatting with Jillian Forrest. Jill is a Class of 2027 Middle Blocker from Cincinnati, Ohio, who as we have seen, gets better and better by the day! After a successful high school season at Ursuline Academy where they made it to the state finals, she and her Tri-State Elite Team are off to a phenomenal start this club season after winning the Nike Classic in Columbus.

After watching Jill for the last two years, she is the energy bus of whatever team she is a part of and despite being ever so slightly undersized in the middle, she holds her own as a physical presence at the net. She’s got a heavy arm, and I love how versatile she can be swinging on the outside out of serve receive. Her bread and butter are “running 3s and routes in front of [her] setter,” but one of her goals this club season is to continue developing her slide.

Triple Crown has always been Jill’s favorite tournament, but this year was extra special for a few different reasons. For starters, this was her first time receiving an invite to the USAV NTDP training that was held prior to the tournament. She said she really enjoyed her first NTDP experience getting to play with the best of the best from all different age groups and she is looking forward to the next NTDP training event.

Additionally, her team, Tri-State Elite, finished 3rd in the Elite bracket and performed better than they had their past two years at NIT. “Going into the tournament we expected to do well but not as well as we did,” she said while thinking about how this is the first year at NIT where her team won a match in a power pool on day 1. “It definitely built up our confidence for the rest of the weekend,” expressed Forrest.

Finally, Forrest was selected as a member of the Triple Crown NIT All-Tournament Team! In reacting to being chosen, Forrest stated, “This weekend was such a team effort, and it was an honor to be selected.” The award came as no shock after such a successful weekend. Reflecting back, Jill said she found success through making big plays defensively and being creative with different ways to score against the bigger teams like TAV.

It is always a pleasure getting to speak with Jill as she is so much fun to watch, yet one of the humblest players we have had the opportunity to speak with. Congratulations to Jill and her entire Tri-State Elite team on their successful weekend in Kansas City. They are certainly a force to be reckoned with this season, and we can’t wait to watch them excel.