Nebraska ONE 15 Titanium, Premier 17 Gold Win Titles at Show Me Qualifier

Prep Dig Kansas covers live summer event in Topeka.

Berk Brown

April 11, 2016 @ 03:19 PM

KANSAS CITY - Both Nebraska ONE 15 Titanium and Premier 17 Gold captured the USA division championship in their respective age divisions at the Show Me USAV Qualifier this weekend in Kansas City and both earned a bid to compete in the Girls Junior National Championships in Indianapolis this summer as well.

The championships and bids by the two Nebraska teams continues an impressive qualifier season so far in 2016 by Nebraska teams, which have now captured a total of six bids at various qualifiers.

For Nebraska ONE, getting into Sunday's championship bracket in the 15 USA division was more difficult than the actual final bracket proved to be. Nebraska ONE need three sets to put away Mizuno Northern Lights 152 25-18, 17-25, 15-12 and then the team from Lincoln dropped its only match of the tournament to OP2 of Oklahoma 21-25, 27-25, 15-10. The loss to OP2 meant Nebraska ONE would need to win four matches on Sunday to win the title and it did just that.

After opening with a 25-14, 25-22 win over OT Asics of Florida, Nebraska ONE knocked off top-seeded Springfield, MO, 25-22, 25-14 in the quarterfinals and then took a 25-23, 25-20 victory over San Antonio Magic to reach the finals. In the championship match, Nebraska ONE defeated Club ONE of Oklahoma 25-15, 25-18.

Members of the Nebraska ONE 15 Titanium team are: Mariah Buss, Atley Carey, Brynn Carey, Hope Leimbach, Paige Silverberg, Fallon Stutheit, Lauren Taubenheim, Alexis Thavenet, Emily Thavanet, Erin Williams and Marian Zvolanek. The team is coached by Rachel Culwell and Ashley Dudycha,

Premier 17 Gold

For Premier 17 Gold, getting to the championship bracket was the easy part, but securing the bid and championship took a little more work.

After cruising through the first two days of pool play without allowing an opponent more than 20 points in any set, Premier also won straight-set matches in the championship bracket's first round and then again in the quarterfinals. With three bids up for grabs in the tournament, a win in the semifinals would secure a bid and Premier was able to punch its ticket to Indianapolis after going to a third set to beat Northern Lights 172 25-23, 22-25, 15-9.

In the championship match, Premier again found itself in a third set and again prevailed against Houston Juniors 17 Premier 19-25, 25-21, 15-9.

Members of the Premier 17 Gold team are: Sydney Clarkson (Omaha Concordia), Taliyah Flores (Papillion-LaVista South), Steph Gaston (Papillion-LaVista), Madeline Krajewski (Papillion-LaVista), Abigayle Meyer (Elmwood-Murdock), Bridget Petersen (Millard West), Dani Prusha (Papillion-LaVista), Emma Walker (Millard West), Nikki White (Omaha Skutt) and Averey Yaksich (Omaha Concordia). The team is coached by Joe Wessel, Ashley Pike and Korrine Boltin.

Below is a listing of how every team from Nebraska did at the Show Me Qualifier this weekend.

2016 Show Me Qualifier

18 American

13th place - Club Legacy 18 ROX

Tied for 23rd - Nebraska West

38th place - South Central Nebraska 18 Red

17 USA

1st place - Premier 17 Gold

Tied for 5th - Club Legacy 17 ROX

17 American

Tied for 17th - Nebraska ONE 17 Shockwave

Tied for 27th - Nebraska Elite 17 KOA