Wisconsin Teams in the 2018 USAV Girls’ 18s Junior National Championships – Part 2 – National Division

<p>Wisconsin sent 13 teams to compete in Anaheim last weekend with 6 teams in the 4 Qualifying divisions and 7 teams in the non-qualifying Patriot Division. Part 2 will be a quick recap of how 2 of our Badger Region teams did in the USAV 18s Junior National Championships while competing in the National Division. </p> <p><strong><u>NATIONAL DIVISION</u></strong></p> <p><strong>WVA 18 BLACK – FINISHED 37^TH OUT OF 48</strong></p> <p>            WVA 18 Black earned their National Division bid at the Badger Region Qualifier back in February.  It has been a bit of a struggle since then, and this national tournament would put them to the test.  WVA started out Friday (4/27) afternoon in Pool 4 dropping their first 2 matches to Premier Nebraska 18 Gold (22-25, 22-25) and Rockwood Thunder 18Mizuno (13-25, 19-25) before ending Thursday with a barn burning win against ARVC 18N1 Adidas (26-24, 14-25, 15-13).  They wrapped up pool play on Saturday (4/28) with losses to TIV 18 Mizuno Ben (13-25, 14-25) and CoJrs 18Sherri (25-17, 16-25, 13-15).  WVA finished 5^th in their pool, which sent them to the Flight 2A bracket.</p> <p>            On Sunday morning (4/29) WVA started out in their single elimination bracket play with a loss to ACAD 18 Red (19-25, 15-25), who eventually won the Flight 2A bracket.  WVA finished 37^th with a 1-5 record for the weekend.  WVA was in a pool with a Rockwood Thunder 18Mizuno team out of St. Louis, MO that ended up placing 9^th in the National Division.  Rockwood Thunder 18Mizuno has players committed to play at Arkansas State, Furman, Illinois State, Northern Kentucky, University of South Alabama, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and Truman State.</p> <p>Rockwood’s 5’10” outside hitter, <strong>Emma Lattimore </strong>(Eureka)<strong>,</strong> will be a future teammate of Milwaukee Sting 18 Gold’s setter, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9268" first="Miranda" last="Wucherer"] </strong>(Brookfield Central) at Northern Kentucky.  Another Wisconsin standout, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9269" first="Marissa" last="Stockman"]</strong> (River Falls, Kokoro 18-1s) will be playing with Rockwood’s highly accomplished setter, <strong>Carley Nicholson</strong> (St. Pius X) at Illinois State. </p> <p>WVA 18 Black will be competing in one more tournament this weekend at the WVA Invite #12 on May 6^th.  Over this past club season this team has competed in California, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin taking on some of the best. For all but 2, this was the end of their prep volleyball career.  <strong>Lauren Spaulding</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9286" first="Alexis" last="Dorner"]</strong> will get to see each other on regular occasion competing in the Horizon League against one another as big in-state rivals. Good luck to those going on to the next level in 2018.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9353" first="Katie" last="Hoeffner"]</strong> – Alaska-Anchorage</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9265" first="Emily" last="Scott"]</strong> – Louisville</p> <p><strong>Lauren Spaulding</strong> – UW-Milwaukee</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9305" first="Megan" last="Cannon"]</strong> – Robert Morris</p> <p><strong>Brianna Weyenberg</strong> – Minnesota-Duluth</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="12028" first="Madyson" last="Schroeder"]</strong> – UW-Stevens Point</p> <p><strong>Abigail Fortune</strong> – Northern Michigan</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9286" first="Alexis" last="Dorner"]</strong> – UW-Green Bay</p> <p>(2019)<strong> [player_tooltip player_id="33035" first="Lily" last="Welti"]</strong> – St. Louis University</p> <p>(2019) <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10222" first="Maddie" last="Koch"]</strong> - Purdue</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>MILWAUKEE STING 18 BLACK – FINISHED 37^TH OUT OF 48</strong></p> <p><strong>            </strong>Sting Black finished 1^st at the Badger Region Qualifier in February, then placed 21^st at the 18 Nike Mideast Qualifier in March, but has had plenty of success this season playing some top notch teams!  They started out Friday (4/27) afternoon in Pool 1 dropping their first set to Mintonette Sports – m.8 (23-25, 25-23, 13-15) in a real fight through each set.  Sting Black bounced back with a win over Sky High-Adidas 18 Black (25-17, 25-20) before dropping their last match of the night to Northern Lights 18-1 (13-25, 23-25).  Saturday (4/28) afternoon they started out with a solid win over ID Crush 18 Nat James (25-11, 25-19) before dropping their final pool play match in a 3-set match with Fight Club VB 18-Adrienn (22-25, 25-22, 8-15).  Sting Black ended with a 2-3 record in their pool, which put them in a tie for 4^th, but a tie-breaking procedure put them in 5^th place.  They ended up going into Flight 2A along with WVA 18 Black.</p> <p>            Sunday (4/29) morning Sting Black started their single-elimination bracket play with a 3-set loss to FIVE VBC 18-ADIDAS (25-21, 14-25, 10-15).  They ended in 37^th with a 2-4 record in Anaheim.  Sting Black has a stacked pool that included 3 teams that finished in the top 10.  Sky High-Adidas 18 Black, based out of Crystal Lake, IL, finished 5^th in the National Division and has players that will be playing in the fall for Akron, Central Florida, South Carolina, UIC, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  Northern Lights 18-1 (Minnesota) ended with a 2^nd place finish in the National Division and has players heading to Central Florida, Marquette, Rhode Island, San Diego, and SMSU.</p> <p>            After a season competing in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, this team has closed the books on some stellar high school careers.  Best of luck at the next level to these players in the fall!</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9296" first="Emily" last="Matson"]</strong> – Murray State </p> <p><strong>Abby Hamilton</strong> – Loyola Maryland</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9326" first="Lizzie" last="Lightner"]</strong> – Edgewood College</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9278" first="Amanda" last="Garvens"]</strong> – University of North Carolina-Greensboro</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9386" first="Sydney" last="Nienhaus"]</strong> – Cardinal Stritch University</p> <p><strong>Abigail Koenen</strong> – UW- Milwaukee</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="12025" first="Cori" last="Meyers"]</strong> – Winona State</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9310" first="Hannah" last="Kuehl"]</strong> – William Woods</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="9318" first="Sarah" last="Klobuchar"]</strong> – Doane University</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="33093" first="Tommy" last="Albers"]</strong> (2019) Not committed yet</p>