Finale From Phoenix: 18s Wrap Up From Missouri and Kansas
18s USAV Juniors National Championships came and went over the weekend with many players playing in their final club volleyball tournament. Many memories were made as athletes put a cap on their phenomenal volleyball careers. Many will continue to play…
Access all of Prep Dig
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue Reading18s USAV Juniors National Championships came and went over the weekend with many players playing in their final club volleyball tournament. Many memories were made as athletes put a cap on their phenomenal volleyball careers. Many will continue to play at the next level, some will be hanging up their knee pads for the final time. Here is a quick look at what transpired for some of the teams from Missouri and Kansas.
Rockwood Thunder earns way to 18 Open Gold Bracket
The Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite team had a strong run-through pool play to finish second with a 4-1 record. The only sets they dropped were to Vital 18 Gold, who ended up finishing atop the grouping. This allowed them to advance to the challenge round where they would need to win two matches to advance to the gold bracket. They opened up with Absolute Black 18-1 and took what many call the important first set 25-21. Absolute bounced back to get the second 26-20 to force a decisive third set. They were able to capture momentum to get the third 15-11. The next match would be versus the rested Coast 18-1 team. Rockwood still up on their win took care of business in straight sets, -19, -23 to advance to the Gold Bracket.
18 Elite stayed hot advancing to the round of 4 after a three-set win over Adversity 18G. Their hopes of a championship would end after a two-set loss at the hands of Madfrog 18s N Green, who would finish runner-up leaving Rockwood with a tie for third place.
Mizuno Club North 18s come up just short in 18 Liberty
Like Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite in the open division representing the Gateway Region, Mizuno Club North made waves being the only Heart of America team to get to the Gold Bracket in any division. We stated from the jump, that this team had the pieces to make a deep tournament run and they did. As we mentioned over the weekend, they were perfect on the first day before coming back and going 2-1 on the second, good for a 2nd place finish. That finish was good enough to advance to the Gold Bracket but their luck ran out in the first round to a tough Elite VBC Gold team in three hard-fought sets.
PVA 18 Elite and Dynasty 18 Black falls in Challenge Rounds in 18 Open
Both PVA 18 Elite and Dynasty 18 Black did enough to escape from pool play and get to the challenge rounds in the 18 Open division. They would end pool play in second place, Dynasty going 4-1 and PVA 3-2. PVA would run into the buzzsaw named National runner-up Madfrog and drop the match in straight sets. Dynasty had a similar fate, losing in two lopsided sets to Rage Westside.
417 Juniors makes run but falls short in USA Division
The 417 Juniors 18-1 squad came in as a team destined to make a deep run with many of the top players from around the Springfield area. They concluded pool play 4-1 and in second place, which gave them the opportunity to keep fighting for a title going to the Challenge Rounds. They took care of the first challenge in Rio 18-IN, beating them in three sets. They then battled in a roller coaster of a match against Capital 18 Adidas. In what could be one of their toughest defeats of the year, they dropped the match -25, -24.
Freedom Challenge round sees Missouri team fall short
A team we didn’t know much about coming in caught our eye in the Freedom Division in SEMO Heat 18-1. They finished second in their pool play with a 3-2 record. The Southeast Missouri team ran into a mismatch in the Crossover match, losing in straight sets.