All Gold! 1st Alliance 15 Gold Takes Home NIT 15 Elite Title
At 1st Alliance, there is a high standard of excellence among their athletes and coaches. This Chicagoland club has a gym full of future college stars as well as plenty of history of success at the national level with their top teams being a consistent favorite at the Open division. This weekend was no different as 1st Alliance 15 Gold came in as one of the favorites and blitzed through the competition winning the NIT Triple Crown NIT crown.
They came into this tournament with plenty of expectations and executed three days of high level play to take the 15 Elite NIT Triple Crown title. Like all great programs, they take it one point at a time and focus on winning the game within a game, starting with serving and passing
“We talk a lot about winning the serve/pass battle. At this age level that has a lot to do with the outcome of the match. We want to be consistent and aggressive in our serving. With our passing, if we can keep our passing steady, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it allows us to spread out our offense,” said Coach Jocelyn Birks.
The balance of @1stAllianceVBC is tough to crack. They are finding ways to stay in system.
Up 18-11 set one pic.twitter.com/1sD9N1P3AV
— Chris Fitzgerald (@PrepDigChris) February 21, 2022
Their strong and consistent serve/pass game would remain strong all weekend. Even the teams who win this tournament might suffer a loss during Saturday power pool play. Not 1st Alliance. They didn’t drop a match and had an overall set record of 18-3 against the best clubs in the nation. This team does it with solid ball control, athletes who can play multiple positions, and role players who can step up in the clutch.
1st Alliance would cruise to a first set win in the finals against OT 15 Randy, taking control with an aggressive serve and finding all the open spots, winning 25-15.
However, the squad from Florida responded with a sense of urgency in set two. With multiple attackers that included Connore Siler-Nixon, Isabella Pereira, and Maggie Dostic and strong libero play by Lily Hayes led OT to taking set two 26-24.
Come set three, standout outside hitter for 1st Alliance, Abby Vander Wal, would continue to take on a high volume of serve receive and swings, but a huge block by Jessica Kolosta, a quick tempo kill to the corner by Keira O’Donnell, and a big swing and kill by the MaTaia Lawson was the extra spark 1st Alliance needed, prevailing 15-11 in set three.
“The third set sums up our weekend pretty well. Everyone has been able to step up and contribute at different times which makes it easier on our pin hitters who are generally our heavy hitters who get a lot of our balls. Being able to spread out our offense and have different people score and be confident with kills, blocks, block touches, it allowed us ultimately win,” said Coach Birks.
Vander Wal was glowing with pride, with such excitement for her team’s accomplishment. For the 15s age group, this is their first chance to showcase their skills in a big time atmosphere in almost two years.
“This is amazing, I love this team. We work so hard in practice and I’m so happy we got this result,” said Vander Wal
1st Alliance will head into qualifier season with a major target on their back but for this group that is nothing new. They will get back in the gym and continue polishing their game.
Qualifier season is just over a month away with this squad lated to take on MEQ in Indianapolis and Sunshine in Orlando.