OMAHA – When you bring in roughly 4,300 volleyball players and their families for the President’s Day Classic at CenturyLink Center, you know it’s going to be packed around most of the courts. That’s especially likely to be the case…
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SubscribeOMAHA – When you bring in roughly 4,300 volleyball players and their families for the President’s Day Classic at CenturyLink Center, you know it’s going to be packed around most of the courts.
That’s especially likely to be the case around the 15 Open courts, as you can bet there will be a steady stream of college coaches adding to the spectators around the courts. Three of the top 36 teams in the nation are in the 16-team field as well as some of the top freshmen in the country.
Here is a preview of the 15 Open division along with predictions on how I see it playing out this weekend.
Total Teams: 16
Format: Two pools of 8 teams, top two teams in each pool advance to championship bracket
Pool 1: Northern Lights 151, Dynasty 14 Black, Nebraska Juniors 151, Nebraska Elite 15 Revolution, CIA 15 Black, Momentum Volleyball 15 Elsa, Ozark Juniors 151, IPVA 15 Black.
Pool 2: Dynasty 15 Black, Colorado Juniors 15 Kirk, Premier 15 Black, VCNebraska 15 Elite, Six Pack VBC 15U, CIS 15M, Club Legacy 15 ROX, FSJ 15 National.
Top Teams & Nebraska Teams: In pool 1, it looks like it’s going to come down to a rematch between Northern Lights 151 and Nebraska Elite 15 Revolution. The two teams met for the 16 Club division title at the January Thaw tournament a couple weeks back with Lights taking the win 18-25, 25-18, 15-11.
Northern Lights is ranked #17 nationally and – as normal – stacked with height. The team finished 10th at nationals last year and brings back eight of those players – including 6’3 OH Ava Moes, 6’2 MH Abigail Moe.
Elite Revolution is #24 in the nation and you have to think revenge is on its mind. The real question will be how much 6’3 MH Rylee Gray (Elkhorn South) will be available because of basketball district finals on Saturday. But, Revolution’s strength is its depth with the likes of Skutt trio Allie Gray, Shayla McCormick and Brilee Wieseler.
Dynasty 15 Black makes its way up from Kansas City and is ranked #36 in the nation. While not overly tall, Dynasty runs a quick-tempo offense and brings back a lot of the players from its 14s team that finished 25th in the nation last year. Dynasty will also flash some serious ball control with a pair of top-level defenders in Hadley Bird and Ellie Smith.
Premier 15 Black will have its work cut out for it in Pool 2, but with players like backrow specialist Jeli Petrovic (Papillion-LaVista South), Elkhorn pin hitters Addie Thomas and Abigail Wolfe – all with extensive experience as freshmen during the high school season – Premier should hold its own.
VCNebraska 15 Elite features one of the top freshmen in the state in 6’0 setter/RS Elle Glock and has an eighth-grader to keep an eye on in Mya Larson.
Nebraska Juniors 151 Black has enough pieces to do some damage in its pool, led by freshmen Becca Gebhardt (Lutheran High Northeast) and Leah Mach (Fairbury) and Papillion-LaVista South eighth-grader Ava LeGrand.
Club Legacy 15 ROX rounds out the teams from Nebraska competing in the 15 Open division.
Pool 1 Predictions: I’ll go with Northern Lights 151 placing first and Nebraska Elite Revolution taking 2nd. Don’t’ overlook Dynasty 141 or Nebraska Juniors 151 Black – both could crash the championship bracket.
Pool 2 Predictions: I feel pretty good about Dynasty 151 winning the pool and VCNebraska 15 Elite coming in 2nd. Colorado Juniors 15 Kirk is the team to watch out for as a dark horse.
Championship Predictions: I will go with Northern Lights 151 over VCNebraska 15 Elite and Nebraska Elite 15 Revolution over Dynasty 151 in the semifinals. I think Elite 15 Revolution then gets its revenge on Northern Lights 151 in the match that matters the most – the championship.
