Depth of MN Select Reigns at Mizuno Showcase

In a tournament where anything is up for grabs over the course of three days, power pools, and some of the top teams from Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois - the atmosphere is about playing big in crucial moments to survive and advance. For MN Select, they played deep into Sunday at all levels with gold bracket opportunities. Take a look at some standout performances and how each age level fared against some of the best in the Midwest. 15s Division Four MN Select teams finished in the top 15 and three teams finished in the elite eight. After scanning the courts on Sunday, there would be the maroon, black, and white jerseys of MN Select scattered everywhere. The 15-1’s were in the power pools which had them facing the top eight teams all weekend, with one of their most exciting matches coming against cross metro club, Kokoro. With a loud gym at Just a Game Fieldhouse, tight quarters for playing, and plenty at stake for a good spot on Sunday this was tight from beginning to end as MN Select took the match 18-16 in the third. Libero, Jayna Bredenberg sparks the team from the start with a solid first contact and is a really solid communicator telling her hitters where the open spots are and quarterbacking from the backrow. Cara Cyr was quite the force in the middle against Kokoro who has a strong attack of their own from the middle. Back to back blocks by Cyr really propelled the momentum in favor of Select. Outside hitter, Callie Coughlin also provided a late offensive spark which led to some big points in set three. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> At Prep Dig we usually don’t write about 14s, but seeing the <a href="https://x.com/MNSelect?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MNSelect</a> 14s compete and be successful at the 15s level....watch out - they are legit. <a href="https://t.co/dFB4Z4KAlF">pic.x.com/dFB4Z4KAlF</a> — Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) <a href="https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1101584347608567810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> MN Select, 14-1, 15-2, and 15-3 all had one loss each which came on their final match. 15-3 was defeated by Select 15-1 in the Gold Bracket of Sunday while 14-1 and 15-2 suffered quarterfinal losses to Kokoro 15-1 and VC United, two very high quality programs. The MN Select 14-1 team just finds a way to get it done in a bracket older, which is no surprise to them after they won the 15s division of the Big City Luau. Kate Thibault, libero for 15-1 already has state tournament experience for Watertown-Mayer while again we don’t usually write about 14s, but I was just writing down numbers of athletes who were making a big impact for their team. Stella Swenson was playing well beyond her years and making a push from pin to pin look easy...and she’s 13. To have a setter who can be a gamechanger that young is remarkable. What is most impressive about this team is they are so balanced and just never seemed rattled. Overall, the 15s team for MN Select finished the weekend with a combined record of 20-3. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <a href="https://x.com/MNSelect?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MNSelect</a> 16s in the quarterfinals against <a href="https://x.com/ClubFusionVB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ClubFusionVB</a>. It’s one of the top 16s teams out of the Minneapolis metro vs. one of the top Chicagoland programs. <a href="https://t.co/2VvoGntdRE">pic.x.com/2VvoGntdRE</a> — Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) <a href="https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1102259105274703874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 16s Division There were some powerhouse clubs and teams in this division which included some of the top in Illinois with multiple teams from Illini Elite, Sports Performance, VC United, and Fusion. For 16-1, an early power pool three set loss to Sports Performance 16 Elite was only foreshadowing to a championship match which appeared to be going in favor of Sports Performance after winning the first set 25-12. MN Select came back to narrowly win the second set 27-25 and close out the match and the championship with a third set win 15-12. This team has plenty of household vollyeball names in Skylar Gray who has committed to Minnesota, Kendal Kemp who is a 6’5 Class of 2022 middle, and Jasmine Weidemann who set her high school team of Lakeville South to a third place finish in Class AAA this past fall. A major gamechanger this weekend was Sophie Jesewitz on the right side. The 6’3 pin hitter can do a little bit of everything, but against Fusion in bracket play she was controlling the net offensively and defensively scoring multiple points in a row. They handled one of the top teams in the Windy City Power League to keep on advancing and claiming the only title for any team outside of Illinois over the whole weekend. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> This dive...Molly Schultz of <a href="https://x.com/MNSelect?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MNSelect</a> gets a diving kill. She is committed to <a href="https://x.com/KUVolleyball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KUVolleyball</a> <a href="https://x.com/hashtag/SCtop10?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SCtop10</a> <a href="https://t.co/vT24yMGxyi">pic.x.com/vT24yMGxyi</a> — Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) <a href="https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1101862369683226629?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 17s Division This dig by Molly Schultz just may have been an indication of how things were going to go for MN Select 17-1 on Saturday and Sunday. With a couple early losses in power pool play to Illini Elite 17 Cardinal and Fusion 17 Red, there were some must win moments for Select on Saturday which came at the hands of defeating Kokoro 17-1 and Capital 17 Adidas which set up another match with Fusion to start out the quarterfinals which this time went in favor of Select in two sets followed by a second sweep of Kokoro over the weekend before falling to Illini Elite 17 Cardinal in the championship in three sets. Schultz is always a spark for this team, but the overall execution of this team was amazing, almost like an art form to watch Olivia Johnson set to high school teammate Elizabeth Helmich on the right side with her big left handed swing - it's almost automatic. Another impressive performance this weekend was from another Wayzata prep in Lily Emlong. Emlong is a 6’2 middle who has such a quick arm. Whether it was a quick or a slide, she was rolling on all cylinders and was such an effective player at the net offensively and defensively. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> 17-2 finished with an 8-1 record as the Premier Gold Division Champs at the Showcase! <a href="https://t.co/dcnOcK9hzJ">pic.x.com/dcnOcK9hzJ</a> — Minnesota Select (@MNSelect) <a href="https://x.com/MNSelect/status/1102360845512818688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 18s Division The 18s division had a large amount of depth beyond the power pools with multiple athletes who will be competing at a really high level collegiately with in the next year. For some of the athletes on MN Select 18-1, they have been playing together a long time for high school and club ball, including three Champlin Park athletes in Kaitlyn Weimerskirch, Emma Schmidt, and Izzy Ashburn. There is also the young one of the group of Anna Wolf, just a Sophomore just keeps getting better every time she steps on the court. This past weekend it was just a matter of who was standing at the top at the end. MN Select defeated FC Elite twice, which the two have seen each other in big matches during the qualifiers and also had to face the top teams in Illinois in Sports Performance, Illini Elite, and Fusion. In bracket play, Select defeated Fusion after losing to them earlier in pool play, but after defeating Sports Performance 18-Elite, SPRI came back to defeat MN Select 17-15 in the third to claim the championship.