17 USA: 417 Juniors Grabs 5th.

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 417 Juniors 17 National Black team from the Springfield, Missouri area walked away from nationals with a 5th place finish after going 6-3 over the four days. The tournament started strong with 417 winning their first three matches of pool play on the opening day. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On the second day, they opened with a defeat at the hands of Arete' 17 Navy. Match two would determine pool placement as they faced off with undefeated ECJVC. Sitting 3-1, a win would give Juniors the top spot in the pool. The first set saw them run away with a -11 win. Set two was a heavy-weight fight with both teams throwing their best shots but it would be Juniors finishing it off 29-27 to clinch the pool and continue in Group 1 play.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Day three after being placed in a new pool, 417 National Black would start the day with a loss to San Antonio Juniors 17 Adidas in three sets. This defeat essentially placed 417 in a must-win situation if they wanted to continue their hopes of playing for a national championship. With SA Juniors sitting 2-0 and clinching the pool, a win would give them a second-place pool finish and stay in the hunt. They handled the pressure and got the sweep with set two being in dominating form.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The crossover match would determine if they would advance to the Gold Bracket and have a chance to play for the top prize or be regulated to Silver or Bronze play. They rose to the occasion and swept OVA 17 Black with matching 25-20 sets. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The quarterfinal round saw them get out to a quick start and they pulled away late to capture set one, -22. Arizona Rev 17 Premier didn't blink and stormed back to get the second, -19. The third and decisive set was one for the ages with both teams making big plays with the match on the line but it would be the team from out West who would get the win 17-15.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Missouri Kansas City pledge [player_tooltip player_id='216473' first='Collette' last='Buschhorn'] and [player_tooltip player_id='124850' first='Rilynn' last='Finley'], a Missouri State commit would both play their way onto the All-Tournament Team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[program_tooltip program_id='428799' first='Rockwood' last='Thunder'] 17 Navy</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The St. Louis area-based club went 5-6 over the tournament, good for 32nd place. They went 1-4 in opening pool play which pushed them to the Group 2 pools on day three and out of title contention. They would regroup to win two of three in pool play, including two three-setters that ended in 17-15 wins. They finished the tournament in Flight Three where they won two more matches before dropping the last one to Mintonette in straight sets. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Apex Volleyball 17-1</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Apex VB out of the Heart of America region went winless over nine matches but was able to scratch out some set wins along the way.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->