How To Keep Track of Who Qualified For USAV 18s in 2019
January isn’t finished and I’m already trying to track who is all qualifying and for what divisions in for the 18s USA Qualifiers. I’ll admit, I made a mistake last week saying Motion (MVP) out of Milwaukee got a bid from the Northern Lights Qualifier in Omaha in the USA Division, but in the picture it was a certificate for the tournament, and not a bid. My bad. However, it was a really solid tournament by them and when it comes to these qualifiers it doesn’t matter what division, it’s a matter of winning at the right time and against the right opponents.
To kick things off from the previous weekend, in 18 Open at the Northern Lights Qualifier, Arizona Storm was the overall winner which gave them a bid to Open, followed by Northern Lights 18-1 and Iowa Power Plex 18 Elite Black. MN Select finished fourth in the pool which did not give them an automatic bid to the USAV Open Division. However (a big however), Northern Lights 18-1 and 18-2 will not be attending the USAV Championships this spring and will be taking a European Tour instead, which causes a bit of a trickle down effect.
Since Northern Lights 18-1 did not accept their bid, that gave MN Select a bid to the USAV Open division from the Northern Lights Qualifier. Northern Lights will play at the AAU Nationals Memorial Day Weekend in Orlando.
Taking a look from this past weekend from the Girls Winter Championships in Chicago it was a dog fight to get into the Gold pool. After two days of pool play, tiebreakers, and three set battles the final four was Circle City out of Indianapolis, MN Select, FC Elite (Wisconsin), and M1 (Minnesota). Three bids were available and with MN Select having already secured a bid to the Open division that gave Circle City (who finished 9-0 on the weekend), FC Elite, and M1 all bids to the Open division due to the trickle down.
Again, this is one sample of the madness that is qualifying for Nationals. Qualifiers haven’t even started for the younger levels and then factor in regional qualifiers and teams advancing divisions and its another can of worms. Three weeks into the club season and I’m already trying to remember who qualified where.
To make matters a little bit easier here are a few helpful links.
The first would be the USA Girls Indoor site that has information about all age groups, qualifiers, bid allocations, and more!
https://www.teamusa.org/usa-volleyball/events/girls-indoor
Teams are qualifying for 18s and here is a link to see who made it, in what division, and what qualifier their earned their bid from.
Qualified Teams In Each Division
This isn’t quite rocket science, but at times it seems very close. It’s cause and effect to the extreme. We will do our best to keep players, coaches, fans, and the volleynerds up to date on who is in, out, advancing and punching their tickets to nationals!