Heart of America Power League Qualifier: 16s
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Club season is upon us! There have been some tournaments here and there to get the season going but the Power League qualifiers are the first “major” event in the HOA region. Teams battle it out for a chance to…
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Continue ReadingClub season is upon us! There have been some tournaments here and there to get the season going but the Power League qualifiers are the first “major” event in the HOA region. Teams battle it out for a chance to make the Power League playdates and compete for a national bid along the way. The 16s got it going Saturday and here is what it looked like with 33 teams jockeying for 16 spots in an attempt to earn the region’s national bids for the junior championships this summer.
The format looks like this: Pool play with the winner automatically earning a spot in the Power League. Those pool winners would then compete in bracket play for seeding purposes. The difference this year is in bracket play, the teams would play just one set. The teams who finished 2nd-4th in the pool would battle to back door their way into Power League. 8 automatics, 8 fighting through to earn a spot.
The top seed will be Mavs KC 16-1 who was perfect on the day. They had a great battle in the semifinal round of bracket play with PVA 16-1 which ended in a 26-24 one-set win. They knocked off Power ‘] 16-1 in the final match -17. We are going to be doing more thorough team breakdowns in the weeks ahead but Mavs have Logan Parks Logan Parks 5'11" | S Blue Valley North | 2025 State #8 Nation KS and Caroline Clayton Caroline Clayton 5'9" | OH Olathe South | 2025 State KS leading the way. As mentioned, Power ‘] 16-1 will have the second seed heading into Power League. They picked up a solid win over Dynasty 16-1 in the semi-round. Lily Wedman Lily Wedman 5'8" | S Blue Valley West | 2025 State KS is one of the premier setters in the state for Power and teams up with high schoolmate Allison Heck Allison Heck 6'0" | MB Blue Valley West | 2025 State KS .
Emma Christian Emma Christian 5'8" | S Liberty North | 2025 State MO and Lauren Lopez Lauren Lopez 5'10" | OH Bishop Miege | 2025 State KS are a couple of players on a deep roster competing for what will be the third seed, Dynasty 16 Black. Rounding out the top four will be the PVA 16-1 team we mentioned earlier who took Mavs to the wire. Macey Jackson Macey Jackson 5'9" | RS Blue Valley Southwest | 2025 State KS is a player that stood out recently at our Top 250 Expo and will contribute to this team.
Mavs 816 16-1 grabbed a spot in Power League by finishing fifth after a perfect run through pool play and dropping their bracket match to Power ‘] 16-1. Madeline Sallee Madeline Sallee 5'10" | RS St. Teresa's | 2025 State MO will help lead this team this club season. CSDP from Springfield showed up and handled their business to end up sixth. They split a match against Invasion but being in a five-team pool worked out for them as they still finished on top. CSDP has All-District Abby Rebmann on its roster from Lebanon. Kansas
Networks 16-2 and 417 Juniors 16-1 grab the final two pool berths to PL. Kansas Networks beat a good Mizuno Club North team who would later qualify. 417 had a split with Mavs 816 16-2 but won their other two contest to finish on top of their pool.
The next eight teams would need to advance to a bracket round where they would need to win full matches to earn a spot. The ninth and tenth teams are from the Mavs volleyball family with Mavs 816 16-2 and Mavs KC 16-2. So that makes four of the top ten teams coming from the Mavs household. Both teams only needed to win one match after finishing second in their pools.
We mentioned Club North earlier and they get the eleventh spot after bouncing back to defeat Invasion 16-1. Club MVP battled through the five-team pool to finish second and topped Topeka Saints in a three-set instant classic, with the final set being 15-13.
Rounding out the 16!
13. Power ‘] 16-2 (2-1-1)
14. Thr33 Volleyball 16-1 (3-2)
15. Dynasty 16-3 (3-2)
16. Kansas Networks 16-1 (2-1-2)