ORLANDO, FL – As it turns out, 13 is a lucky number for Nebraska Elite 161 Vici at the AAU National Championships.
Nebraska Elite entered the 16 Open division at AAU Nationals as the #13 overall seed but walked off the court today as the top team, defeating Club Fusion of the Chicago area 22-25, 25-22, 15-12 in the championship match.
Not only did Nebraska Elite win the Open division – which is the highest level of play possible – but also it did so by knocking off some of the top teams in the nation on its own. En route to the title, Elite beat #60 Milwaukee Sting, #6 Asics KIVA 16 Red, #50 Minnesota Select 161 and #27 Club Fusion (national rankings by PrepVolleyball.com).
Through the course of the four-day tournament, coach Tony Carrow said the team remained focused despite the ups-and-downs that come with such a long tournament.
“We talked a lot all week about how things happen for a reason,” Carrow said. “It was like fate, it really was.”
Carrow said that attitude helped his team overcome a 25-22 defeat in the first set of the national championship match to Fusion.
“All day we kept telling the team it wouldn’t be over until 4 (p.m.),” Carrow said. “It was only right that it would go three sets – it seems like that’s all we’ve done all week is go three games and we owned the third game. After we won the second set and started well in the third, you could just feel that the girls believed they were going to do it.”
In the second set, Nebraska Elite was able to pull out to a lead of 20-16 on a Sarah Swanson ace serve, but Fusion rallied with four straight points to tie it at 20-20. Then, with the score tied at 22-22, Brooke Heyne got one of her 10 kills in the match and Alli Schomers followed with a perfectly-placed second-ball into the back corner to make it 24-22. A Schomers and Kathleen Medill block then won the set at 25-22.
An emphatic Heyne kill opened the third set for Nebraska Elite, but the set was tight all the way and was tied at 12-12 when Medill and Madi Stearns had consecutive kills to get it to 14-12 Nebraska Elite. A tough Jordan Daniels serve then sent the Fusion defense into scramble mode, which resulted in a net violation and gave the national title to Nebraska Elite.
The symmetry of winning the title after starting as the 13th seed dates back even further as a large portion of the team placed 13th in the nation four years ago with Carrow as coach of the 12s team.
Members of the Nebraska Elite 161 Vici team are: Jordan Daniels, DS, Millard West; Brooklyn Duren, MH, Omaha Skutt; Lily Heim, setter/RS, Omaha Marian; Brooke Heyne, OH, Omaha Skutt; Kathleen Medill, MH, Lincoln Pius X; Grace Nelson, Libero, Elkhorn, Jessica Schlautman, DS, Omaha Skutt; Allison Schomers, setter/RS, Omaha Skutt; Madison Stearns, OH, Millard South; Sarah Swanson, MH, Elkhorn South.
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