VCNebraska 16 Elite Wins Intra-Club Battle for Heartland Cup 15/16 Open Title

<p>OMAHA – For Sunday at least, VCNebraska’s 16 Elite squad scored intra-club bragging rights over VCNebraska 15 Elite.</p> <p>VCNebraska 16 Elite scored the final four points of the match to take a 25-23, 10-25, 15-12 win over its club mates in the championship match of the Heartland Cup Power League 15/16 Open Division on Sunday at Nebraska Elite.</p> <p>After getting what can only be described as a good ol’ fashion whoopin’ in the second set at the hands of its younger counterparts, <strong>Jensen Rowse</strong> (Minden) came out on fire in the third set for 16 Elite as she had three kills early to help her team build a 5-1 lead.</p> <p>When <strong>Kayla Davis</strong> (Lincoln Southwest) smashed a kill in the middle for 15 Elite, though, it cut the 16 Elite lead to 6-5. Jensen followed with another kill and a service ace to help 16 Elite pull back ahead 10-7.</p> <p><strong>Mya Larson</strong>, an 8^th grader from Wahoo who finished with a match-high 11 kills, tied it at 10-10. 16 Elite’s Elise Gilroy (Millard West) and Larson exchanged kills to make it 11-11 before a 16 Elite hitting error put 15 Elite 12-11.</p> <p>After a kill by 16 Elite’s <strong>Alexis Markowski</strong> (Lincoln Pius X) tied it at 12-12, 16 Elite got the final three points on a net violation, hitting error and serve-receive miscommunication to wrap-up the title.</p> <p>Gilroy finished with a team-high five kills for 16 VCNebraska 16 Elite and Rowse had four – all coming in the third set. Addison Heidemann (Diller-Odell) had 12 assists.</p> <p>For 15 Elite, Larson had 11 kills followed by five from <strong>Elisabeth Tomlin</strong> (Lincoln Southwest) and four kills and two blocks from Davis. <strong>Elle Glock</strong> (Wahoo) had 23 assists, a block and an ace serve.</p> <p>In the third-place match, Nebraska Elite 14 Havoc held on to win a wild one over Nebraska Juniors 151 Black 19-25, 26-24, 17-15.</p> <p>Nebraska Elite 14 Havoc led the second set 24-21 and it looked like a lock that the match was headed to a third set until <strong>Rebecca Gebhardt</strong> (Lutheran High Northeast) had a pair of kills sandwiched around an <strong>Anna Burt</strong> ace serve to tie the score at 24-24. Nebraska Elite, however, finished off the second set with kills by <strong>Amanda Loschen</strong> and <strong>Meaghan Raabe</strong> to win 26-24.</p> <p>Elite got off to a blistering start in the third set and took a lead of 11-3 before Nebraska Juniors came storming back behind two kills a block by <strong>Ava LeGrand</strong> and three kills and a block by Gebhardt to get within 11-8. Elite took advantage of a pair of errors by Nebraska Juniors to stretch its lead to 13-8 and eventually got it to match-point at 14-10 on a kill by <strong>Jenna Hamilton</strong>.</p> <p>Nebraska Juniors, however, rattled off five straight points of its own and had its own match point at 15-14 after a hitting error by Elite. Loschen responded with consecutive kills for Elite and Kylie Weeks finished it with her 12^th kill of the match.</p> <p>After Weeks’ 12 kills, Loschen had nine for Elite and Hamilton finished with five. <strong>Baylee Towles</strong> had 15 assists and a block for Elite and <strong>Abby Schomers</strong> had 12 assists, four kills, two aces and a block.</p> <p>LeGrand led Nebraska Juniors with nine kills and two blocks while Gebhardt had eight kills and two blocks and <strong>Leah Mach</strong> had six kills and two blocks. Burt finished with 13 assists and <strong>Saige Craven</strong> had 10.</p>