President's Day Classic: Led by VCNebraska 17 Elite, Local Teams Shine in 17 Open

Taya Beller (Humphrey-Lindsay Holy Family) of Nebraska Juniors 171 hits over the Junior Bison 17 Gold block during pool play action in the 17 Open division on Saturday. (Photo by Berk Brown). OMAHA – The 17s age division is…

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Taya Beller (Humphrey-Lindsay Holy Family) of Nebraska Juniors 171 hits over the Junior Bison 17 Gold block during pool play action in the 17 Open division on Saturday. (Photo by Berk Brown).

OMAHA – The 17s age division is the most loaded when it comes to Nebraska teams, and it showed on the first day of competition in the 17 Open division at the Asics President’s Day Classic on Saturday.

Nebraska’s four teams competing in the division went a combined 9-3, lead by VCNebraska 17 Elite’s 3-0 performance. Nebraska ONE 17 Titanium, Nebraska Elite 17 TKO and Nebraska Juniors 171 each went 2-1 on Saturday.

VCNebraska’s three wins weren’t exactly against the stiffest competition, with all of its matches coming against the bottom three seeds in the pool on Saturday. However, VCNebraska took care of business in those matches, defeating Ozark Juniors 171 25-20, 28-30, 15-9, Junior Bison 17 Gold 25-17, 25-14 and Oklahoma Charge 1y UA 25-23, 25-17.

The three wins has VCNebraska tied with Northern Lights 171 atop Pool 2 in 17 Open with the two teams set to square off at Noon on Sunday.

Nebraska Juniors 171 knocked off Junior Bison 17 Gold 25-23, 25-27, 15-12 and also took a 25-21, 25-22 win over Iowa Power Plex 17U before falling in its final match of the day 25-19, 25-18 to Six Pack 17U. Juniors and Six Pack are each 2-1 in the pool and tied for third.

In Pool 1, it was a really good day for Nebraska ONE 17 Titanium, as it started off the tournament with a 25-22, 17-25, 15-12 win over Nebraska Elite 17 TKO and then got a 25-23, 25-22 win over CIA 17 Black. Titanium’s only loss came to the tournament’s top seed, Dynasty 17 Black, which downed ONE 25-22, 18-25, 15-11. Making things look even better for Titanium is the fact that it was without Seward’s Camryn Opfer and Lincoln Pius X’s Lauren Taubenheim – who were both gone due to basketball.

After its loss to Titanium, Elite TKO bounced back to destroy both IPVA 17 Black 25-10, 25-16 and Edge 17 Walter 25-9, 25-19.

That puts both Titanium and TKO at 2-1 and tied for third place in the pool, behind a pair of 3-0 teams in Dynasty 17 Black and Northern Lights 172.