President’s Day 17 & 18 Open Recap: Sweet No Treat for 17 Gold
OMAHA – On paper, the marquee match on Saturday at the Asics President’s Day Classic looked to be the 17 Open match between Premier 17 Gold and Topeka Impact 171.
On the court, the two teams put on a match that lived up to the paper’s expectations.
Topeka Impact came into the match ranked #36 in the nation while Premier 17 Gold has established itself as the state’s top 17s team at this point in the season. And, after 17 Gold won the first set 25-21, Topeka Impact rallied back to win the final two sets 25-17, 15-12 to win the match.
With the victory, Topeka Impacted finished Saturday’s pool play in 17 Open with a perfect 3-0 mark while 17 Gold dropped to 2-1. Both teams advanced to Sunday’s championship division pool play. On Sunday, the remaining 12 teams in the division will be cut down to the final six for the championship bracket.
A kill by Omaha Concordia’s Averey Yaksich and two straight service aces from Papillion-LaVista South’s Taliyah Flores got 17 Gold out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first set and the team never trailed. A crucial moment, however, came when Yaksich got a solo block on Husker recruit Jazz Sweet on the right side that stopped a 6-2 Topeka Impact run and put 17 Gold up 22-19 en route to the 25-21 win.
It was Topeka Impact that got off to the hot start in the second set, taking leads of 6-1 and 10-3. Premier 17 Gold did rally to get within 18-14 on a Flores kill but never did get closer than four points the rest of the way.
Premier 17 Gold looked in trouble early in the third set as Topeka Impact scored the first three points and later held a 7-4 lead, but Millard West’s Bridget Petersen started a 17 Gold run with a kill and later had an ace serve to give 17 Gold a 10-7 lead.
A kill by Topeka’s Kelsey Gordon stopped the 17 Gold run and a Mikayla Simons kill later tied it at 11-11 and also allowed Sweet to rotate to the front row down the stretch. Sweet then dominated the end of the match, combining on a block with Simons, forcing a four-hit violation against 17 Gold and then crushing a kill from the right side to put Topeka Impact up 14-11. A service error got 17 Gold within 14-12, but Sweet ended the match with a solo block.
Yaksich finished the match with a team-high eight kills for 17 Gold while Flores, Petersen and Gaston each had seven. Sweet finished with 15 kills for Topeka Impact.
Also in 17 Open, Nebraska Elite 17 Ooh Rah had a heart-breaking day, going 1-2 with both losses coming in tight three-set matches. After rolling to a 25-17, 25-10 win over NORCO 17 Black, Excel 17 National (ranked #47 in the nation) knocked off Elite 27-25, 16-25, 15-13.
Elite still had a shot to advance, but again came up just short against Club Iowa 17 Black 25-12, 23-25, 15-13.
VCNebraska’s Jasa Scheierman goes in for a kill against Mizuno Northern Lights 172.VCNebraska 17 Elite was without one of the state’s standout sophomores in Malcolm OH Jaela Zimmerman and it took a toll as the team went 0-3 on the day with a 25-19, 25-19 loss to Mizuno Northern Lights 172 to go with a 25-17, 21-25, 15-13 loss to Show Me ROX and a 25-22, 25-20 loss to Ozark Juniors 171.
In Zimmerman’s absence, however, libero Riley Newton of Elkhorn South was outstanding and Grand Island’s Anna Chiasson did some nice things in the back row. Malcolm’s Hayley Densberger and Aurora’s Jasa Scheierman were strong at the net.
In the 18 Open division, Premier 18 Gold rallied for a 17-25, 25-22, 15-12 win over Club Iowa 18 Black in its final match of the day to go 3-0 and is the only undefeated team in its pool. 18 Gold also defeated Conway Juniors 181 25-20, 25-16 and Rocky Select 18 Black 25-17, 25-18.
Also in 18 Open, Nebraska Elite 18 Mirage got off to a rough start with a 25-9, 25-13 loss to CIS 18M before battling hard in a 26-24, 25-17 loss to Mizuno Northern Lights 181. Mirage ended its day with a 25-21, 25-21 win over Kairos Elite 18 Adidas and sits at 1-2 in pool play heading into tomorrow.