Meet the Journal's 2025 All-Metro volleyball team

Swingers, blockers, diggers and facilitators. The Journal’s 2025 All-Metro volleyball team has it all.

The Journal's choices include three future Division I players among the top 12 (six first-team choices, six more on the second team).

Cleveland’s Azlynn Tittmann, who has signed with Boise State, is one of this season’s three first-team hitters. 

The 6-foot-1 senior registered 332 kills, an average of 4.6 kills per set.

Joining Tittmann as hitters on the first team are La Cueva junior Jula Utash and St. Pius senior Alyssa Bendinskas.

The 5-8 Bendinskas had nearly 300 kills for the Class 4A state champion Sartans, plus 49 aces and 251 digs. She is headed to Austin Peay to play beach volleyball at the next level.

Utash is the latest in a long line of dynamic hitters to put on the La Cueva colors. The junior powered her way to 370 kills last season as the Bears reached the Class 5A state championship game.

Bendinskas was not the only St. Pius Sartan to make the first team. Senior Maya Perea is generally regarded as the top libero in New Mexico, and she makes a return appearance on the Journal’s All-Metro group following a season in which she dug 331 balls.

And Utash was one of two Bears to make the first team. Her setter, freshman Charlie Ferguson, is the first-team choice this season. Ferguson did a brilliant job of feeding her hitters in the La Cueva attack, averaging over 9 assists per set. She finished with an impressive 758 assists for the season.

The first team is rounded out by Albuquerque Academy middle Kiara Brown. The sophomore was a six-rotation player for the Chargers, and finished the year with 341 kills, 223 digs and 60 blocks.

The third of the D1 signees this season is Albuquerque High hitter Kaelynn Ashley, who also is headed for Austin Peay in Tennessee, but to play on the hard courts. Her younger sister, Ayva, is the second-team setter.

Rounding out the second team are sophomore outside hitters Avery Steele from Hope Christian and Rowan Jaime from Academy, plus senior middle Aaliyah Simpson from Cleveland, and La Cueva libero Embrey Eisele, also a sophomore.

ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
2025 ALL-METRO VOLLEYBALL TEAMS

FIRST TEAM

• Jula Utash, 5-8, jr., OH, La Cueva
• Azlynn Tittmann, 6-1, sr., OH, Cleveland
• Alyssa Bendinskas, 5-8, sr., OH, St. Pius
• Kiara Brown, 6-0, soph., MB, Albuquerque Academy
• Maya Perea, 5-5, sr., libero, St. Pius
• Charlie Ferguson, 5-9, fresh., setter, La Cueva

SECOND TEAM

• Kaelynn Ashley, 5-10, sr., OH, Albuquerque High
• Avery Steele, 5-9, soph., OH, Hope Christian
• Rowan Jaime, 5-10, soph., OH, Albuquerque Academy
• Aaliyah Simpson, 5-11, sr., MB, Cleveland 
• Embrey Eisele, 5-4, soph., libero, La Cueva
• Ayva Ashley, 5-9, jr., setter, Albuquerque High