Premier 18 Gold Stays Hot, Wins Banzai Classic Title

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

With Premier leading 18-16 in the second set, Elite’s Emily Bay (Elkhorn South) rattled off a pair of service aces to tie it at 18-18. Katie Kizer (Omaha Marian) and Caroline Ortman (Omaha Duchesne) then combined for a block for Elite and a Premier hitting error put Elite up 20-18.

Following a Premier timeout, Hailey Petersen (Millard West) got a kill and a hitting error by Elite followed by a Taliyah Flores (Papillion-LaVista South) kill put Premier back up 21-20 to trigger a timeout by Elite. Out of that timeout, Elite’s Atley Carey (Lincoln East) got a kill and a Premier hitting error send Elite back into the lead at 22-21.

Premier’s Flores and Elite’s Eve Fountain (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 Kenzie Michalek (Papillion-LaVista), but Fountain answered right back with a kill to tie it at 24-24.

Premier’s Lauren Bair (Clarinda, Iowa) the finished the match with a consecutive kills on the outside to give 18 Gold the championship.

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 Sydney Fitzgibbons (Papillion-LaVista) had seven.

Kitzler finished with a team-high five kills for Elite while Fountain finished with four kills, two blocks and an ace serve. Emily Kaup (Omaha Duchesne) added three kills and a block.