Premier 18 Gold Stays Hot, Wins Banzai Classic Title

<p><em><strong>Banzai 181's Alicia Hogan (Omaha South) and Lydia Permenter (Ralston) get a block on Premier 18 Gold's Sydney Fitzgibbons (Papillion-LaVista) during a semifinal match at the Banzai Classic on Sunday. (Photo by Berk Brown)</strong></em></p> <p><br /> RALSTON – Premier 18 Gold continued its red-hot start to the season by winning the Banzai Classic in Ralston on Sunday. Premier went 5-0 on the day and defeated Nebraska Elite 16 Vici 25-13, 26-24 in the championship match to take home the title.</p> <p>It was the second time on the day Premier 18 Gold outlasted Nebraska Elite 16 Vici as the two met during the pool-play portion of the tournament earlier with Premier taking a 2-1 victory – winning the third set 15-8.</p> <p>In the tournament portion, Premier reached the championship with a sweep of Banzai 181 while Elite made its way to the finals with a sweep of Nebraska ONE 17 Titanium in the semifinal matches.</p> <p>All signs pointed to a highly-competitive championship match, but that wasn’t the case in the first set as Premier got off to a quick start on its way to the 25-13 win. The second set, however, was more of what everyone had expected.</p> <p>With Premier leading 18-16 in the second set, Elite’s <strong>Emily Bay</strong> (Elkhorn South) rattled off a pair of service aces to tie it at 18-18. <strong>Katie Kizer</strong> (Omaha Marian) and <strong>Caroline Ortman</strong> (Omaha Duchesne) then combined for a block for Elite and a Premier hitting error put Elite up 20-18.</p> <p>Following a Premier timeout, <strong>Hailey Petersen</strong> (Millard West) got a kill and a hitting error by Elite followed by a <strong>Taliyah Flores</strong> (Papillion-LaVista South) kill put Premier back up 21-20 to trigger a timeout by Elite. Out of that timeout, Elite’s <strong>Atley Carey</strong> (Lincoln East) got a kill and a Premier hitting error send Elite back into the lead at 22-21.</p> <p>Premier’s Flores and Elite’s <strong>Eve Fountain</strong> (Millard North) exchanged kills, but then an Elite service error tied it at 23-23. Premier got to match point when Elite couldn’t handle a serve by Premier’s <strong>Kenzie Michalek</strong> (Papillion-LaVista), but Fountain answered right back with a kill to tie it at 24-24.</p> <p>Premier’s <strong>Lauren Bair</strong> (Clarinda, Iowa) the finished the match with a consecutive kills on the outside to give 18 Gold the championship.</p> <p>Bair came on strong late for Premier, getting six of her seven kills in the match in the second set. Flores finished with a team-high eight kills for Premier and <strong>Sydney Fitzgibbons</strong> (Papillion-LaVista) had seven.</p> <p>Kitzler finished with a team-high five kills for Elite while Fountain finished with four kills, two blocks and an ace serve. <strong>Emily Kaup </strong>(Omaha Duchesne) added three kills and a block.</p>