A “Super” Weekend Recap of Wisconsin Club Volleyball

For Super Bowl weekend, the Wisconsin club volleyball scene provided a lot of exciting highlights and stories within stories to take note of.  With events going on in Milwaukee in the JVA Jamboree, GLPL for the 17s/18s in Aurora, and Sting 15 and 16 Gold going to the ever so tough Central Zone Invite in Indianapolis.  We are a month into the season and teams are starting to form that bond, some are starting to see where the gaps are, and others are starting to gain a lot of momentum. Here is a quick recap of the weekend.

JVA Jamboree – Milwaukee

Coming off the January Thaw in Omaha, Milwaukee Sting Gold and Black could be experience a bit of a letdown.  That wasn’t the case as both of them played in the championship with 18 Sting Gold coming out on top.  With this weekend being a GLPL for 17/18s, the field wasn’t particularly strong with teams who typically compete in the open division.  The most entertaining match I watched was between Milwaukee Sting 18 Black and Adrenaline 17 Rox.  Adrenaline 17 Rox out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa has 6’4 Grace Tubbs who is committed to Iowa along with Aliyah Carter who flat-out flys when she approaches, a very exciting player.  However, the pins of Sting 18 Black of Cori Meyers, Abby Hamiliton, and Abby Koenen along with Amanda Garvens were just a bit too much taking the match in three sets, winning the final one 16-14.

In 16 Open, Wisconsin clubs were shut out of the final four with Illini Elite 16 Cardinal, MN Select, and Michigan Volleyball Academy being in a league of their own.  Jordyn Gates of MVA is an Arkansas commit with plenty of weapons to distribute too.  The speed and tempo at which they play at is tough for teams to adjust to.  With solid passing, MVA was constantly putting their opponent out of system causing a solid case of free ball situations they could capitalize on.

In 15 Open, Milwaukee Sting 15 Black finished second behind Minnesota Select in a competitive final match, losing 26-24 and 25-22.  Select had a ton of firepower from the pins and were capable of scoring every play.  15 Black has a lot of balance all the way around and solid ball control.  Over the course of the weekend 15 Black finished 5-1, while WVA 15 Black finished 4-1 with their only loss coming to MN Select.

GLPL – The “Elite” Teams Create Separation

FC Elite went 2-1 in Gold Pool A defeating Sports Performance 18 Kahl and Sky High Adidas 18 Black with their only loss coming to Sports Performance 18 Elite.  These are some of the top programs and teams in the nation!  Elite lost their crossover with FaR Out 18 Black, but will stay in the Gold Pool A which is the top pool the next Power League on March 17.

There were some very competitive Badger Region matchups with Capital 17 Adidas defeating WVA 17 Black in the fifth set 15-13 and coming back to beat Milwaukee Sting 17 Black in five sets at all.  Milwaukee Sting 17 Gold went 2-2 and will remain in the Silver Pool.  

On Saturday, Wisconsin Juniors 17-1 was able to knock off Wisconsin Ice 18 in the semifinals of Bracket B which guaranteed moving up to Bracket A for Sunday while Wisconsin Ice 18 defeated Southwest in the third place match to move on to Bracket A as well.  

Two, Top Ten Finishes For Sting 15 and 16 Gold

The Central Zone Invitational was one of the top tournaments in the nation this weekend with teams from all over the country competing.  Milwaukee Sting 15 Gold is heading into the season with high expectations with already two Big 10 commits in Mckenna Wucherer (Minnesota) and Brooke Mosher (Illinois).  15 Gold finished 4-2, a tie for 5th place, with their two losses coming to Mintonette out of Ohio and A5 out of Atlanta.  Both of these teams are part of clubs that traditionally have teams who finish tops in the nation.  Lions 15-1 defeated Sports Performance 15 Elite which both teams play GLPL and will likely see each other again.

16 Gold was on fire winning their first four matches of the tournament.  Then Sunday came and it was a different story.  With two matches with the opportunity to advance into the top bracket for a championship, 16 Gold came up a little bit short losing to UNION out of Indiana in three sets and then losing to AVC Cleveland Rox to finish at a tie for 9th.  Mintonette defeated AVC Cleveland Rox which both teams finished in the final four of the USAV Nationals in Minneapolis last year.