Previewing This Weekend’s Two Big Local Club Tournaments

<p>A pair of local club tournaments will feature most of the top teams in the state Sunday as the club season begins to ramp up for 2018.</p> <p>It starts Sunday morning with the Performance VBC Nike Challenge, which features Premier’s Gold teams in the 15, 17 and 18 age division along with the top 18s team from Performance and the Nebraska ONE 171 Titanium squad.</p> <p>Later in the after, the first round of the Heartland Cup Power League begins at the Nebraska Elite volleyball facility. The two older divisions – 16/17 and 17/18 – basically feature the top squads from VCNebraska, Nebraska Elite and Nebraska Juniors.</p> <p>Here is a quick preview of what to expect and look for in each tournament.</p> <p>The Performance VCB Nike Challenge is a five-team round robin that should produce some really good matches.</p> <p>At 8 a.m., Premier 17 Gold will take on Premier 15 Gold. At the season-opening Mizuno Premier Showcase, 17 Gold swept 15 Gold, so it will be interesting to see if that lights a fire under the younger team. In preseason national club rankings, Premier 15 Gold is #18 in its age division while 17 Gold is #38 nationally in its age division.</p> <p>Right after, Nebraska ONE 171 Titanium faces a Premier 18 Gold team which just earned a bid to the USAV GJNC in the 18 USA division. This will be the first outing of the year for Titanium, which features two of the top 2020 players in pin hitters <strong>Marriah Buss</strong> of Lincoln Lutheran and <strong>Lauren Taubenheim</strong> of Lincoln Pius X as well as top 2019 players like <strong>Erin Williams</strong>, <strong>Hope Leimbach</strong>, <strong>Fallon Stutheit</strong>, <strong>Camryn Opfer,</strong> <strong>Kamryn Willman</strong>, <strong>Lexie Langley</strong> and others.</p> <p>The final matches of the tournament are schedules for roughly a Noon start with Premier 17 Gold and 18 Gold taking each other on while Nebraska ONE 171 Titanium squares off with Premier 15 Gold and each one of those matches could have title-winning implications.</p> <p>Starting at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday is the 17/18 Division of the Heartland Cup Power League at the Nebraska Elite volleyball facility.</p> <p>The eight-team tournament is divided into two pools of four teams with the two pool winners meeting for the championship.</p> <p>Pool 1 features a Nebraska Juniors 181 team with Omaha Marian setter <strong>Lily Heim</strong>, North Bend’s <strong>Kristin Lux</strong> and Grand Island Central Catholic’s <strong>Megan Woods</strong>, among others, as the top seed. VCNebraska 18 Blue, VCNebraska 17 Elite and Nebraska Elite 17 TKO are also in Pool 1. The VCNebraska 17 Elite team features the #1 overall prospect in 2019 – Illinois recruit <strong>Kyla Swanson</strong> – and the #1 overall prospect in 2020 – Nebraska recruit <strong>Kalynn Meyer</strong>.</p> <p>Pool 2 has VCNebraska 18 Black as the top seed followed by Nebraska Elite 18 Envy, Nebraska Juniors 171 and Nebraska Elite 16 Vici.</p> <p>The championship match should begin at roughly 7:30 p.m. Sunday night.</p>