Virginia Elite Makes History at Boston Festival

<p>The Virginia Elite Volleyball Club team showed its grit during the NIKE Boston Volleyball Festival. VAE is one of the clubs is always looking for better competition to challenge their athletes and prepare them for college-level volleyball. During this weekend, VAE 18s team competed at the Boston open qualifier. The team fell short after they lost to the top three finishing teams of the tournament (Rockwood Thunder, Absolute, and Houston Juniors). </p> <p>The VAE’s team had some of their best performances this season. They showed passion and resilience during this weekend, which was rewarded by winning the silver bracket and finishing 9th overall as the highest placing East Coast club in open level.  Coach Ziegler was very happy with his “Little Giants” and he was proud of how all of his 12 players contributed to the team’s success. </p> <p>Every player has a role in the team. According to Coach Ziegler, the team follows his game plan offensively and defensively. The setters seamlessly transitioned between their two offensive systems. The pins demonstrated versatility, switching roles and responsibilities from set to set or even during play in stunt blocking situations. The middles did a great job closing the block, particularly against the faster teams such as Absolute and Milwaukee Sting. Finally, the back row was defensive and their serve receive allowed the team to side-out consistently and remain within striking reach against each of their opponents. A majority of the players on this team have played together since the 14s. As Coach Ziegler stated, ”This was their highest finish in any qualifier, historically!.” The following players had their best performance. </p> <p>Setters <b>[player_tooltip player_id="111470" first="Helena" last="Swaak"]</b><b> &amp; </b><b>Jeannie Greathouse</b>: both setters started throughout the weeken<img class="size-medium wp-image-184793 alignright" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2022/03/vae-1-292x300.jpg" alt="" width="292" height="300" />d and played large roles in their team’s success. They were consistent in their tempo and engaged their hitter throughout the game  </p> <p>Middle Hitter <b>[player_tooltip player_id="111453" first="Madison" last="McCartney"]</b>: she has the highest efficiency (.304) and the second most blocks per set on the team. The Lehigh commit dominates the middle.</p> <p>Pin Hitters: <b>[player_tooltip player_id="111442" first="Akasha" last="Anderson"]</b> led the team in passing (1.86) as a six rotation outside and is the go-to hitter in the team. The Auburn commit brought a lot of competitiveness and energy to the team. Akasha had a great day hitting and blocking. <b>[player_tooltip player_id="111450" first="Nicole" last="Mallus"]</b> is another great performer player in the team. The Cornell commit is a strong passer and attacker.  She is very proficient in attacking. <b>[player_tooltip player_id="111448" first="Sarah" last="Malinowski"]</b>, the Virginia Tech commit, had a phenomenal weekend and helped the team on blocking </p> <p>Libero <b>[player_tooltip player_id="111468" first="Kaitlyn" last="Dunnigan"]</b>: the William and Mary commit was the second-best passer on the weekend (1.82). She played fabulous transition defense for the team. Kaitlyn is a stabilizer for the team and has a good reaction to the ball in defense. </p> <p>The team is going to compete at NEQ Philadelphia this weekend to earn their bid to Nationals. You can find them at court 7 / AM Wave.</p>