Nebraska Bid Tracker: Premier 17 Gold Recaptures NLQ Magic

They've done it again.   A year ago, the Minneapolis Convention Center saw a spectacular run to a Nationals bid for Premier Nebraska 16 Gold. The team battled through some injuries and didn't have the start that it was looking for. Then, it all came together at the Northern Lights Qualifier in dramatic fashion.   Less than a year later, that 16 Gold group, which has now stepped up to the 17s age group, found some of the same magic that propelled it to an Open bid last year. Resilience was once again the defining principle of 17 Gold's latest effort, and it was truly something to behold.   Let's add another name to the Nebraska Bid Tracker.     Pushing through Pools   With how stacked 17 Open pools were at NLQ, every set and match victory would be important to stay alive. And at every stage of NLQ, 17 Gold came through when it mattered most.   17 Gold puts its stamp on Round 1 fairly quickly with two consecutive sweeps over Spiral and VC United. Because the top two finishers in 17 Open's four-team pools would stay in Gold contention, a 2-0 start is a great way to keep spirits high. Though 17 Gold fell in a three-set slugfest to Rockwood Thunder 17 Elite, the 2-1 mark was satisfactory.   But it stands to reason that the competition would get stiffer in Round 2, and that was indeed the case as Premier was paired up with two red-hot Wisconsin teams and Georgia's A5, which finished runner-up in 16 Open at GJNC last year. In spite of the challenging lineup, 17 Gold started out hot again with a comfortable sweep against FC Elite 17 Navy. Immediately after, however, A5 17-Jing snuck past Premier in another three-set battle to the end.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1619351503504023553?s=20&t=1R1udJjzYrYRtyjbQKPnAw </div></figure>   While A5 was surging ahead to first in the pool, MKE Sting 17 Gold won a hotly contested in-state battle with FC Elite. This set up a massive matchup between Sting and Premier Nebraska in which only the winner would advance to the next round. Fittingly, this was another match that went to a tiebreaker as both squads took 25-23 wins in the first two sets. Eventually, the clutch factor came to fruition for Premier yet again, and a 15-11 triumph set the stage for the momentous Gold pools.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1619411815607451648?s=20&t=1R1udJjzYrYRtyjbQKPnAw </div></figure>     Golden   Round 3 brought on the Gold pools, and the groups were whittled down to just three teams. The pool winner would lock up Nationals bid and advance to the championship, while second-place finishers would collide for one final bout to hand out the third and final bid.   Premier started the final round with another incredibly difficult matchup, facing a Dynasty 17 Black team that won the 16 Open crown at NLQ last year. These two squads had also stood next to each other on the 16 Open GJNC podium as top-three finishers. 17 Gold was able to hang right with Dynasty in this Championship Sunday meeting, but 17 Black had too much heat in the end and swiped a two-set win.   Still, 17 Gold had a very wide-open chance at redemption. A win over OT 17 O Felix would guarantee a second-place finish if Dynasty would also knock off the Florida team. Premier Nebraska seized that opportunity with a two-set win of its own and watched as Dynasty put together another sweep to put Premier alone in second.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1619725915998781440?s=20&t=1R1udJjzYrYRtyjbQKPnAw </div></figure>   The Final Boss   The third-place match awaited. Winner gets a bid, loser falls short.   Across the way, Rockwood Thunder 17 Elite emerged as the second-place finisher in Gold Pool 1 after a much more chaotic outing than Premier's Gold pool. Indeed, this group was just a couple of points away from being relegated to tiebreaker chaos with all three teams finishing 1-1.   Regardless, the Rockwood Thunder matchup felt right for Premier Nebraska's redemption arc. We look back all the way to Round 1 to recall 17 Gold's narrow three-set defeat to this Missouri squad in pool play. The stakes were way higher now.   And this third-place match initially looked dire for Premier. Rockwood struck first with a wild comeback in Set 1 to claim an emotional 25-23 triumph. That was followed up by a large lead late in the second for 17 Elite as they looked to put away Premier and snag the bid.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1619786344913580032?s=20&t=1R1udJjzYrYRtyjbQKPnAw </div></figure>   But the magic was back. It's only fitting that 17 Gold chose to lean on [player_tooltip player_id='109585' first='Lauren' last='Medeck'] in this clutch situation. The South Dakota commit was sidelined on this team with an injury for most of the 2022 season, including during Premier's NLQ breakthrough last March. But she was back and better than ever this time, and her combination of rangy attacks and lights-out serving brought 17 Gold back from the brink to force a third.   Once again, however, Premier faced its share of adversity as Rockwood Thunder jumped out to a huge 6-1 lead in the third behind some incredibly assertive serving. 17 Gold has been in these positions before, but this would require something special.   No problem. The spectacular right-side blocking of [player_tooltip player_id='105002' first='Josie' last='Cleveringa'] and Iowa standout Tanith Roush started to heat up. [player_tooltip player_id='104996' first='Lauren' last='Jones'] was also a huge contributor in this area throughout the weekend. [player_tooltip player_id='152854' first='Morgan' last='Bode'] was an absolute wall in the middle, helping alongside whoever was blocking on the wing.   In the end, the "littles" did some heavy lifting as 17 Gold closed the gap in the third. [player_tooltip player_id='104984' first='Faith' last='Frame'] had some huge digs to set up transition opportunities, while setters [player_tooltip player_id='109593' first='Reese' last='Booth'] and [player_tooltip player_id='109586' first='Reagan' last='Hickey'] displayed their prowess in right-back. To cap it off, [player_tooltip player_id='105001' first='Alivia' last='Hausmann'] dialed up two consecutive aces to pad a Premier Nebraska lead before serving the final point to secure the victory.   Back to Nationals.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/KingsleyATK/status/1619797571966496770?s=20&t=1R1udJjzYrYRtyjbQKPnAw </div></figure>   The Tracker   Add another one to the list.     18 Open   Premier Nebraska 18 Gold (KC MLK)     17 Open   Premier Nebraska 17 Gold (NLQ)

They've done it again.