Gateway League Produced Great Action in St. Louis
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The Gateway(GW) Power League kicked off a couple of weeks ago and finished this past weekend. I don’t know how others feel but one thing I love about the GW Power League is the cross-play between different age groups. One,…
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Continue ReadingThe Gateway(GW) Power League kicked off a couple of weeks ago and finished this past weekend. I don’t know how others feel but one thing I love about the GW Power League is the cross-play between different age groups. One, some of your best competition may not necessarily be in your age group. Two, most of these athletes play against each other in high school from freshmen to seniors, so to have them continue this format is a good concept in my opinion.
In the coming days and weeks we will be breaking down some of the teams across the state and the Power league gives us a chance to learn about some of these teams and their rosters. We won’t go into great detail in this piece about the who’s who of teams but want to share the results of the two weekends of action.
The pool makeup to start the action would be eight pools of seven that played over two days (Jan 7/8). Based on the results, the pools would be reseeded for Saturday, Jan 21st followed by bracket play on the 22nd.
The top team in pool 1, Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite with a veteran roster of Juilette Myrick, Ava Roth Ava Roth 5'6" | DS/L Jefferson R-7 | 2023 State MO , and Caitlyn Little Caitlyn Little 5'10" | OH Lafayette | 2023 State MO went undefeated over the first two play dates. Three teams would finish with records of 4-2 with second place going to Missouri Jrs 17-1 from the Heart of America region. Autumn Bax Autumn Bax 5'11" | RS Blair Oaks | 2024 State #188 Nation MO and Baily Braun are a couple of key contributors to this squad.
Rockwood Thunder 17 Elite entered as one of the favorites to win it all returning a team that has competed and had success amongst some of the best in their age group in the country. They took care of business winning pool 2 behind the play of Maya Witherspoon Maya Witherspoon 5'11" | OH Lafayette | 2025 State #44 Nation MO , Olivia Hasbrook Olivia Hasbrook 5'9" | DS/L Eureka | 2024 State #56 Nation MO , and setter duo Morgan Dumm and Alyssa Nelson Alyssa Nelson 5'8" | S Wildwood | 2024 State MO . 5-1 Missouri Jrs. 18-1, who would earn a bid the following weekend at MLK.
Rockwood Thunder 16 Navy dropped one set on the way to a perfect record in Pool 3. The 15 Elite team fought their way to a 5-1 record to finish runner-ups in pool play. Pool 4 top team goes to Core STL 18-1. We remember this team a year ago as 17s found success over the course of the season and showed they would be a team competing strongly throughout the Power league.
HP Illinois 17 National and HP South 16 Premier would run through pools 5 and 6 over the weekend. Our first non-undefeated pool winner would come from pool 7 with Rockwood Thunder 16 Carolina at 5-1 claiming bragging rights and Rockwood 15 Navy stayed perfect in the final pool.
An off weekend sent some teams to qualifiers and tournament play but they regrouped on the 21st for new pool play action. Rockwood 18 Elite would forfeit their matches after a qualifier weekend. We’ll jump right to bracket play on Sunday with the teams who advanced to the gold bracket for 16-18.
Missouri Jrs. 17 Black, BSVBC 18 Black, Rockwood Thunder 17 Navy, Rockwood Thunder 16 Elite, Missouri Jrs. 18s, HP Illinois 17 National, Rockwood Thunder 18 Navy, and Rockwood Thunder 17 Elite all advanced to the round of 8 after earning victories in previous matchups.
The top half of the bracket had very entertaining contests, with both matches going three sets. The Missouri Jrs 17/BSVBC matchup point differentiation was only 7 points over the three sets with the 18s team coming away with the victory after a 16-14 third set. In the other match, 17 Navy took down the 16 Elite team after dropping the first set and coming back to win the next two.
The bottom portion saw two sweeps in Missouri Jrs. 18s knocking off HP Illinois and Rockwood 17 Elite making quick work of 18 Navy. 17 Elite would keep their domination going erasing Missouri Jrs. in straight sets, -17 and -14. BSVBC would make a sweep in their semi-over 17 Navy to make it to the final match.
BSVBC would put a halt to Rockwood Elite’s four-set domination by taking them down in the opening set and putting the 17-year-old squad back against the wall. As we mentioned earlier, this Rockwood team has been there and they didn’t flinch getting the second set in commanding form, -15. The final set is one you love to see in a high-level championship match with great intensity, big swings, and big defensive plays. In the end, Rockwood got it done winning 15-13 to claim the Gateway Power League title.
Look for our breakdown of many of these teams roster’s in the coming days.