Bracket Play Breakthroughs for Nebraska Teams at KC MLK

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Great Plains Region showed out in Kansas City.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In case you missed it, we've already covered <a href="https://prepdig.com/2023/01/nebraska-bid-tracker-premier-18-gold-triumphs-at-kc-mlk/">Premier Nebraska 18 Gold's run to a bid</a> in the 18 Open division at this event. While 18 Open featured a gold pool format to decide bids, teams in many of the other 18s divisions battled in a challenger-bracket format. Whatever the venue or protocol, Nebraska teams were well-represented in the final chase for championships at the MLK Qualifier.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Here's the breakdown.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The 18 American Duo</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Our <a href="https://prepdig.com/2023/01/nebraska-teams-ready-to-start-18s-bid-chase-in-kansas-city/">preview</a> of the MLK Qualifier mentioned that Club Legacy 18 Alpha and Nebraska ONE 18 Lime had an opportunity to make some noise in 18 American. They both did just that.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Club Legacy kicked off the holiday weekend with victories over WLegacy and Allegiant to finish 2-1 and advance to the next round. The matchup against the latter team included a 32-30 thriller to clinch it for 18 Alpha.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Across the 18 American pool chart, Nebraska ONE 18 Lime put its own stamp on the opening round. The team only dropped one set on Saturday and took down Landshark, KC Twisters, and Apex VB to start 3-0 in Kansas City. The final match of the day was particularly exciting, and 18 Lime and Apex exchanged deuce victories before the Great Plains squad prevailed in the tiebreaker. Right away, we knew that Nebraska came to play.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On to Day 2. Once again, Club Legacy and Nebraska ONE did enough to stay in the title hunt. For Club Legacy, the highlight of Sunday's pools was two comfortable sweeps over 417 Juniors and Apex to claim a stake in the challenger round. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Meanwhile, Nebraska ONE 18 Lime had a Sunday slate full of drama and close calls. In fact, every one of 18 Lime's three Sunday pool matches went the distance to three-set tiebreakers. Perhaps the most thrilling of the three matches was Nebraska ONE's Sunday opener, which came down to a deuce 16-14 third. 18 Lime took that hard-fought victory, and its 2-1 record was enough to advance yet again.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>From there, 18 American jumped right into bracket play with Club Legacy and Nebraska ONE both in the picture. Both Great Plains teams followed up that bracket appearance with a win in the opening round, too. And, while Club Legacy and Nebraska ONE had their bracket runs cut short after those wins, this KC MLK performance is a positive indicator of what's to come for Nebraska's 18s squads. This is a deep group of talent in the Great Plains Region, and we'll be looking very closely at future qualifiers to see if 18 Alpha or 18 Lime can capitalize.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Over in USA</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>While all this was going on, Premier Nebraska 18 Black had its own foray near the top in the 18 USA division.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Like all the teams in 18 USA, Premier was thrown into a wild six-team pool to kick off the competition. 18 Black went 3-2 in this group with wins over Tulsa Power, MAVS KC, and OK Charge. 3-2 turned out to be a solid mark as no team across the entire 18 USA field finished the opening round without a loss. Premier was heading to the challenge matches.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Many readers here will be familiar with the high-pressure environment of the challenge round. All the gains made through pool play can be erased even before bracket play starts. Fortunately for Premier, a straight-set victory over Top Flight kept the positive energy going into the final Monday bracket in Kansas City.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A hard-fought three-set loss to the eventual champion, HPSTL 18 Royal, ended the weekend for Premier. However, we've once again seen an example of the depth among Nebraska's 18s teams, and this is an age group you'll want to follow all the way through GJNC in Columbus.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->