Premier 14 Gold Captures USAV Championship in 14 National Division
INDIANAPOLIS – You can say this for sure about Premier 14 Gold, it’s a team with a flair for the dramatic. And, after three-straight wins in three sets of the championship bracket in the 14 National division at the USAV…
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Continue ReadingINDIANAPOLIS – You can say this for sure about Premier 14 Gold, it’s a team with a flair for the dramatic.
And, after three-straight wins in three sets of the championship bracket in the 14 National division at the USAV Girls Junior National Championships in Indianapolis today, you can also say this for sure about Premier 14 Gold: It’s a national champion.
After rallying for a 17-25, 25-20, 15-11 win over LIVEWIRE 14 Adidas of Arizona in the championship quarterfinals, Premier 14 Gold found itself down big in the third set of its semifinal against Ozark Juniors 141, but mounted a huge rally to claim a 23-25, 25-19, 16-14 victory to advance to the championship match.
After two evenly played sets in the championship match against Six Pack 141 of Iowa, Premier 14 Gold again found itself in a tough spot, trailing 5-0 to start the third set. But, if we learned anything from the first two matches of the day, it was to not count Premier 14 Gold out and it showed why.
Stella Adeyemi stopped the 5-0 run to start the set with a pair of kills and she later added another one that helped Premier 14 Gold pull within 6-4 of Six Pack. The team from Cedar Falls, Iowa, leaned heavily on its 5’11 outside hitter Cassidy Hartman throughout the match and it was no different in the third set as her 21st kill of the match put Six Pack ahead 8-6 as the teams switched sides of the court.
Premier 14 Gold would tie the score at 8-8 on a kill by Grace Heaney and a double block from Ivy Leuck and Alanna Bankstrom. The two teams then traded points back-and-forth until the score was tied at 12-12 after a Six Pack service error.
That’s when Reese Booth stepped to the service line and delivered an ace for Premier 14 Gold to give it its first lead of the final set. Booth then delivered another ace to put Premier 14 Gold up 14-12 and give it championship point. Hartman, however, answered for Six Pack with her 23rd kill of the match to make it 14-13.
On its second championship point, however, Premier 14 Gold’s Adeyemi softly knocked the ball off the top of the Six Pack block and it fell to the court in front of a lunging Six Pack player for the championship-clinching point. In the end, Premier 14 Gold won the match 18-25, 25-22, 15-13.
It’s the second time in recent years that Premier’s 14 Gold team has won the USAV title in the National division. It also happened back in 2015 with Ashley Martin and husband Tad Martin as the head coaches that year as well. This year Sarah Lusk and Priscilla O’Dowd served as assistants on the team.
Six Pack pretty much owned the first set against Premier 14 Gold as it built an early 9-4 lead and never trailed from the beginning. Hartman had eight kills for Six Pack in that set and Premier struggled to find an answer for her attack. In the second set, it was again all Hartman as one of her kills put Six Pack up 22-21 late in the second set, but a service error and hitting error on Six Pack gave Premier 14 Gold a 23-22 lead and Premier was able to close out the set on a Booth service ace and a kill from Adeyemi.
A big determining factor in the third set was the play of Premier 14 Gold’s libero Makenzie Dyrstad, who helped neutralize Hartman in the final set. After having 18 kills in the first two sets combined, Hartman had just five in the third set. In fact, it was a huge dig by Dyrstad off an attack from Hartman that led to an Adeyemi kill that made it 5-2 and helped stop the Six Pack momentum. Dyrstad made several more big digs on Hartman attacks – and the attacks of others – in the third set and helped keep Premier’s offense in system.
Adeyemi led Premier 14 Gold with eight kills – five coming in the decisive third set – while Grace Heaney had six kills, two blocks and an ace serve. Booth had five ace serves in the match,
As a team, Premier 14 Gold played with great ball control throughout the match, giving away very few points. In all, the team had just five hitting errors and one service error. Only 11 of Six Pack’s 60 points came from Premier errors.