Diversity Missing, Drama Isn’t From Great Plains Bid Tournament

There are six bids to the USAV Girls Junior National Championships up for grabs this Sunday at the Nebraska Elite volleyball facility, and there is a good chance Premier will win a vasty majority, if not all of them.

Gone are the days of multiple clubs having multiple teams competing for the prestigious bids to the USAV championships as most major clubs in Nebraska have switched their focus to the AAU championships in Orlando. That has left Premier as the dominant USAV club in the state and the Omaha-based club will have eight of the 12 total teams competing on Sunday.

As of now, Nebraska has five teams that have earned bids already to the USAV championships in Detroit and all those teams come from Premier – 14 Gold, 13 Black, 12 Gold, 12 Black and 11 Gold. Premier also had two of the four 18s teams competing last weekend at the 18s national championships.

The Great Plains Region Bid Tournament is a single-day, double-elimination tournament in which the winning team earns a bid to the National division of the GJNC and the runner-up receives a bid to the American division of the GJNC. This year, in each of the 17, 16 and 15 divisions there are only four teams. Here is a look at how the brackets break down.

In 17s, the huge favorite would have to be Premier 17 Gold, which opens as the top seed against #4 seed Mid Nebraska VBC 17s. The other first-round match will pit #2 seed Banzai 171, which just finished in 5th place in the American division at the Northern Lights Qualifier, against #3 seed Premier 17 Black.

One caveat in this bracket is that Premier 17 Gold, in my opinion, has a really good chance at earning an at-large selection into the GJNC 17 Open division. But, since those are still to be determined, Premier 17 Gold will have to play this tournament with the pressure of knowing it has to win it in order to qualify for the GJNC in a desirable division.

In 16s, Premier 16 Gold is the top seed and will face Premier 16 Red in the first round. Premier 16 Black is the #2 seed and will face #3 seed Nebraska ONE 16 Power in the first round. In 15s, Premier 15 Gold is the top seed and will face Premier 15 Red in the first round while second-seeded Premier 15 Black will face Club Legacy 15 ROX in the other semifinal.

Should Premier capture all six of the available bids on Sunday, that would give the club a total of 11 teams headed to GJNC in Detroit plus the two that already competed in Anaheim last weekend.