Motor City Madness Preview: Breaking down the 17 Open Division

<p>Motor City Madness is going to be one of the biggest club volleyball showcases in the Great Lakes area this year, with nearly 500 teams scheduled to compete over the varying age groups and divisions.</p> <p>The <strong>17 Open Division </strong>will highlight plenty of Michigan’s top talent, as well as some other high-caliber players from around the Midwest. Here’s a closer look at some of the top teams from Michigan competing in this weekend’s event, which will be held on April 21-22 from Ultimate Soccer in Pontiac.</p> <p><strong><a href="http://bit.ly/2JYijSq">CLICK HERE FOR OUR 18 OPEN PREVIEW</a></strong></p> <p><strong>Michigan Elite 17 Mizuno: </strong><a href="https://prepvolleyball.com/articles/club-articles/regional-club-rankings/pvbs-regional-rankings-round-2/334719/4">PrepVolleyball.com</a> ranks this squad atop their Great Lakes regional rankings and it’s easy to see why. The team features a pair of top-10 outside hitters in our <a href="http://bit.ly/2GYAeq4">2019 player rankings</a>. <strong>Madeline Chin </strong>(Purdue) and <strong>Natalie Risi </strong>(Ball State) lead the way along with setter <strong>Wren McCauley</strong> and middle hitter <strong>Abbey Herrmann</strong> (Western Michigan). This team will definitely be among the top contenders in the division.</p> <p><strong>MVA 17 National: </strong>MVA will be putting out a pair of teams in this division in 17 National Black and 17 National Silver. National Black is currently eighth in the PrepVolleyball.com Great Lakes regional rankings. Leading Black is setter <strong>Parker Kwiatkowski</strong> (Wake Forest), who ranks fifth in our Class of 2019 rankings. The team also has 15^th-ranked <strong>Avolyn Lepo </strong>(Oakland) a middle hitter that can jump 10 feet. Black looks like it could be a team to compete with Michigan Elite Mizuno for the 17 Open title.</p> <p><strong>Michigan Elite 17 Elite: </strong>Michigan Elite has a lot of talent in the 17 Division as their Elite East and Elite West teams will both be competing. The Elite East team features <strong>Rachel Speck</strong> (Valparaiso) a middle hitter that is 18^th on our 2019 player rankings. West features outside hitter <strong>Emma Schlagheck</strong> and middle hitter <strong>Abigail Durecki</strong>, who are ranked 20^th and 21^st respectively.</p> <p><strong>FaR Out 17 Gold: </strong>This squad features a mixture of 2019 and 2020 players. <strong>Emmy Webb </strong>is one of the top 2019 players on the squad. She’s a 5-11 middle blocker from Rockford. She is joined by Rockford teammate and setter <strong>Emilee Karelse</strong>. The team also features three of our top-11 players in the <a href="http://bit.ly/2vi6oeR">2020 rankings</a> in outside hitters <strong>Andelyn Simkins </strong>(Western Michigan) and <strong>Natlie Foster</strong>, as well as middle <strong>Maggie McCrary</strong>.</p> <p><strong>Unified: </strong>Unified will also have a pair of teams in the 17 Open Division. They have 17-1 and 17-2 teams competing. 17-1 is led by outside hitter <strong>Paige Briggs</strong> (Western Kentucky), who is ranked third in our 2019 list of prospects. She is joined by setter <strong>Kelsey Vanitvelt </strong>(Southern Indiana).</p>