VCN 17 Elite Shows Moxie in Winning Heartland Cup 17/18 Division

Brooklyn Schram (Papillion-LaVista) of Premier 16 Gold goes up for an attack while Alyssa Rezac (Bishop Neumann) and Kyla Swanson (Wahoo) put up a block for VCNebraska 17 Elite during a pool play match on Sunday. (Photo by Berk Brown)

LINCOLN – Tom Brady and the New England Patriots may not have had a comeback in them on Super Bowl Sunday, but Kelsie Cada, Delaney Humm and VCNebraska 17 Elite sure did.

In the championship pool of the Heartland Cup 17/18 Division at Abbott Sports Complex on Sunday, VCNebraska 17 Elite rallied to victories over both Premier 17 Gold and Nebraska Juniors 181 Black after dropping the first set in each match. Those two wins kept VCNebraska 17 Elite perfect on the day and gave them the title on the second weekend of the Power League.

VCNebraska 17 Elite downed Premier 17 Gold 18-25, 25-22, 15-12 in the opening match of the championship pool and then rallied past Nebraska Juniors 181 Black 22-25, 25-22, 15-8 in the last match. In between, Premier 17 Gold beat Nebraska Juniors 181 Black 25-18, 25-21 to secure second place on the day.

In its match against Premier, VCN’s all Big-Ten middle combo of Nebraska recruit Kalynn Meyer (Superior) and Illinois recruit Kyla Swanson (Wahoo) struggled to find an answer for Premier’s quick-tempo sets in the middle to Bailey Wilson (Millard West). Wilson finished the set with seven kills in Premier’s 25-18 win. Things changed quickly, though, as Wayne State recruit Kelsie Cada (Bishop Neumann) took charge early in the second set as VCN rolled out to a 19-10 lead on a Cada kill before holding off Premier for the 25-22 win to force a third set.

VCN started fast in the third set as well, going up 5-2 on a kill by Drake recruit Alex Lemke (Lincoln East), but then Omaha setter recruit Sami Clarkson (Omaha Concordia) took over in leading Premier on a 10-5 run. Clarkson had two perfect setter dumps and crushed on overpass at the net before getting an ace block on Cada that put Premier up 12-10.

Cada, however, would come right back with a kill that jump started a 5-0 run by VCN to close out the set. Cada also had an ace in that stretch and Delaney Humm (Lincoln Pius X) had two kills during the run – including the match-winner.

Cada finished the match with 11 kills and Humm had 10. Swanson finished with three kills and four blocks and Meyer had five kills and two blocks. Wyoming recruit Hailey Zuroske (Omaha Marian) and Wilson had a team-high nine kills apiece for Premier. Megan Skovsende (Skutt Catholic) had eight and Jessica Hendrix (Papillion-LaVista South) had six.

In its win over Nebraska Juniors, VCN had no answer for Jaden Ferguson (Lincoln Southwest) as she went off for six kills and had an ace serve in the first set. Despite that, Juniors led just 23-22 in the first set after a kill by VCN’s Humm. Washburn recruit Halle Meister (Omaha Roncalli) answered by tooling the block on a slide for Juniors and a VCN hitting error gave Juniors a 25-22 win.

The second-set was tightly contested the whole way and when Ferguson got a solo block it tied the score at 22-22. A subsequent service error by the Juniors followed by another Humm kill and a hitting error by Juniors gave VCN the 25-22 win to force a third set. VCN took control of the third set right away, jumping out to a 6-1 lead on a kill by Alyssa Rezac (Bishop Neumann). VCN’s lead in the final set never got tighter than five points thereafter and Swanson finished it off with a kill and a block for the final two points of the match.

Humm had a monster match against Juniors, finishing with 12 kills, a block and three aces while Lemke had five kills and Cada and Swanson each finished with four. Ferguson finished with a team-best nine kills for Juniors while SMU recruit Lily Heim (Omaha Marian) had eight and an ace serve and Northern Colorado recruit Bailee Sterling (Kearney) had four.

In the match between Premier and Juniors, Zuroske led Premier with seven kills while Ferguson had seven for Juniors and West Virginia recruit Kirstin Lux (North Bend) and Sterling each had six.