TAV Houston 17 Adidas Qualifies at PNQ
One of our teams to watch this year has been TAV Houston 17 Adidas. With the addition of some new faces in the 2022 season, this team has reimagined itself into a competitive, hard-to-beat team. Over the weekend, TAV Houston…
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Continue ReadingOne of our teams to watch this year has been TAV Houston 17 Adidas. With the addition of some new faces in the 2022 season, this team has reimagined itself into a competitive, hard-to-beat team. Over the weekend, TAV Houston 17 Adidas traveled all the way to Spokane, Washington, in hopes of securing a 17 USA bid. This division was loaded with talent from all over the country including top teams from California and Texas. Below we will talk about how this team found success over the course of the tournament, and what they have coming up next.
This TAV Houston team is coached by Branden Smeltzer and Brooke Carley, both of whom seemed to keep cool heads during the 3 set bronze medal game on Monday. This team had been perfect during the tournament up until the final four bracket game against Madfrogs 17 Black. This pushed them into a do-or-die 3rd place game against a really solid NORCO 17 Black team.
During the bronze medal match, some players stepped up to help TAV Houston 17 Adidas bounce back from their first loss of the tournament. They suffered a tough 22-25 first set loss to NORCO 17 Black, struggling in serve receive and on offense. Bouncing back into set 2, TAV Houston 17 Adidas’ two defensive specialists stepped up big time. Libero Ava Martindale (College Station High School) stepped up in a big way on serve receive, allowing her team to keep the ball in system. She stepped up as a leader on the court both athletically and emotionally, which is exactly what this team needed late in the game. Another back-row stud for this TAV Houston team was Kennedy Gustafson. Playing a solid three rotations in middle back, she made some huge plays defensively for her team and picked up some very hard-driven balls by NORCO.
On Offense, TAV Houston 17 Adidas was able to get a lot more going in sets 2 and 3. One of the new faces on the team Gracie Campbell Gracie Campbell 5'10" | OH Klein Oak | 2023 State TX was a huge offensive asset on the outside, beating the block to the ball, and attacking the pin hitter for several tool shots. She also played 6 rotations for TAV, and although struggled early in serve receive and defense, was able to pull it together for a great bronze medal match. A few more names to mention that made big plays down the stretch in the 3rd set for TAV, were Emma Montes and Olivia Waggonner. Montes, playing opposite of Gracie Campbell Gracie Campbell 5'10" | OH Klein Oak | 2023 State TX on the outside position had two huge swings in the 3rd set for a big shift in momentum that the team needed. Feeding off the energy, right-side hitter Olivia Waggoner had a shutdown block and a big kill from the right. It was great to see a solid team effort by all players involved.
Next, TAV Houston 17 Adidas will travel to Dallas, Texas to compete in the Lone Star Classic qualifier. This highly competitive tournament will boast some tough teams from the North Texas region, which would be a great test of competition for this team.