15 and 16 Open Gold Pools Set at Northern Lights Qualifier
Almost time to hand out more bids! The Northern Lights Qualifier has delivered a lot more great volleyball, this time in Minneapolis. We’ve had our eye on the 15 Open and 16 Open divisions as some of the top teams…
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Continue ReadingAlmost time to hand out more bids!
The Northern Lights Qualifier has delivered a lot more great volleyball, this time in Minneapolis. We’ve had our eye on the 15 Open and 16 Open divisions as some of the top teams in the country have battled for bids. And, if a team no longer needs a bid at this point, the glory of winning will do just fine.
Sunday play will decide it all, and we’ve got the final groups. Let’s see who’s in the running and take a look back at how we got here.
15 Open
15s are notoriously unpredictable. Sometimes, as a spectator, you just throw out any assumptions and watch the events unfold. Good teams will inevitably be left out of the bid hunt, but we’ll surely be discussing some of those teams in the coming days.
Pool 1 of 15 Open features Houston Skyline 15 Royal, FC Elite 15 Navy, and Mizuno Northern Lights 15-1.
For Houston Skyline, the path to Gold was completely unblemished. This Texas powerhouse did not drop a single set in either round of pools and displayed their physical dominance throughout. Sunday should be fun.
Meanwhile, FC Elite and Mizuno Northern Lights each showed their ability to bounce back from tough losses. Narrow triumphs over OTVA and Triangle put FC Elite into Gold, while Northern Lights scored a pair of wins over Boomers and Premier Nebraska to secure their shot at the title.
On to the second pool. Nebraska ONE 15 Synergy, Drive Nation 15 Red, and Mintonette m.51 headline this group.
What a fun run for Nebraska ONE. This team just keeps showing their strength against some of the nation’s best. After opening the event with a tough three-set win over Boomers, 15 Synergy has won every other set they’ve played.
Drive Nation and Mintonette will be worthy challengers, though. You could see how much a Gold pool spot meant when Drive Nation earned a must-win triumph against Northern Lights. On the other end of the gym, Mintonette recovered from a loss to Skyline and downed Synergy and Kairos to reach the final round.
An absolutely WILD second set goes to @DriveNation_Dfw 15 Red!
The clutch win over Northern Lights sends Drive Nation into Gold pools, and the celebration says it all. pic.twitter.com/T49rAzUqJh
— Austin Kingsley (@KingsleyATK) March 19, 2022
16 Open
With more participants in 16 Open and four teams in each pool, the schedule works out a little differently. If you remember 17 Open in Omaha, it’s like that. Each Gold team played one Gold match Saturday evening to fit in all the contests. We’ll talk about that at the end.
Here’s who made it. On one end of 16 Open, we have Dynasty 16 Black, TAV 16 Black, Pohaku 16-1, and OT 16 O Roberto.
We saw just about every imaginable path to Gold from these teams. Dynasty never lost, though there were a couple of nail-biters along the way. TAV 16 Black put together two clutch performances against Houston Skyline and Premier Nebraska after dropping Saturday’s opener against Nebraska Elite. Pohaku downed a pair of powerhouses in Mizuno Northern Lights and Mintonette, while OTVA’s fortunes turned in a fiery three-set win against Drive Nation.
Pool 2 has another quarter of serious competitors. KC Power 16-1, A5 16-Gabe, Premier Nebraska 16 Gold, and Skyline 16 Royal compete the Gold field of 16s.
KC Power’s spectacular ball control lifted them to victory in every match despite half of those matches going to a third set. There was far less drama for A5, which steamrolled through both rounds of pools without suffering a set defeat.
Premier Nebraska 16 Gold is showing its resilience with a great showing here in Minneapolis. The same can be said of Skyline, a team that rallied back after falling to Pohaku in the tournament’s opening match.
Now, the alternate schedule kicks in as each of these squads saw the court once for a little Saturday evening Gold action.
In the opener, Dynasty 16 Black continued its dominant run with a two-set win over Pohaku. Afterward, OT 16 O Roberto seized the momentum in its Gold matchup with TAV after falling behind early. A 2-0 win puts OT in prime position for Sunday.
Then, in a continuation of a magical run this weekend, Premier Nebraska 16 Gold handed KC Power its first loss of the tournament in a 2-0 decision. A5 16-Gabe would not relinquish its own unbeaten record, though, as the stacked Georgia team notched a two-set win to close out the day.
On to Sunday.
The perfect run continues!@a5volleyball 16-Gabe seals yet another 2-0 win, this time in the Gold opener. #NLQ pic.twitter.com/3uWwqfvx8j
— Austin Kingsley (@KingsleyATK) March 20, 2022
What a win, and what a tournament for @Premier16_G! This team just fights.
On the board with a win in Gold pools! #NLQ pic.twitter.com/KmRZ54oBve
— Austin Kingsley (@KingsleyATK) March 19, 2022