Bid-ness Report: Who’s on the Hunt for a Bid at NLQ 17 Open?
Be sure to follow @lshotvb on Instagram, Tik Tok and Twitter for all things volleyball! – It’s Day 2 here in Minneapolis and the field is set for Day 3! The 17 Open Division at the 2024 Northern Lights Qualifier has been…
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It’s Day 2 here in Minneapolis and the field is set for Day 3!
The 17 Open Division at the 2024 Northern Lights Qualifier has been one for the books! With over 10 teams from last year’s 16 Open National Championship in the field, the competition has been insane! Of the 11 teams that took part in last year’s USAV 16 Open Nationals, 9 of those teams are still in contention for a bid this weekend.
With 36 teams entering the weekend, only four are entering Day 3 with undefeated records. 1st Alliance, MKE Sting, Michigan Elite and Nebraska ONE all go into tomorrow’s gold bracket pool play with 5-0 records. Some surprises that get snubbed from grabbing their ticket to Vegas this weekend are Surfside and Drive Nation. Surfside goes into Sunday with only one loss however, but miss out on the gold pools due to tie breaker.
Gold Pool Play
Gold Pool 1 | Gold Pool 2 | Gold Pool 3 | Gold Pool 4 |
1st Alliance 17 Gold | Nebraska ONE 17 Synergy | ID CRUSH 17 BOWER | MKE Sting 17 Gold |
Club V 17 Ren Reed | HJV 17 Elite | Michigan Elite 17 Mizuno | Dynasty 17 Black |
Houston Skyline 17 Royal | Mizuno Northern Lights 17-1 | Adrenaline 17 Ben | Rockwood Thunder 17 Elite |
The winner of each Gold Pool will advance to a Gold Bracket Play Off. First through third place will receive 17 Open bids to USAV Nationals in Las Vegas.
Gold Pool 1
1st Alliance has been cruising through this tournament. They’ve yet to drop a single set in Minneapolis. Not only have they won 10 straight sets, but they’ve yet to play a game that didn’t have a set won by over 9 points. That’s how good Alliance has been playing this entire tournament. Tomorrow could pose some actual challenges however. Club V and Houston Skyline provides a bit more size at the net which is something Alliance has yet to see.
If either V or Skyline can slow down the ball of Abby Vander Wal (Texas) and Addy Horner (Wisconsin) at the net and create some transition opportunities, we could see ourselves with a ball game tomorrow. However, not only has 1st Alliance been out-sizing teams and providing more physicality, their serve and pass has been incredible. I would argue, this is Alliance’s to lose.
Gold Pool 2
This second pool could be a real fun one to watch shakeout. These teams all seem so similar, but yet so different, I am not so sure if this pool has a definitive prediction like GP1 had. Nebraska ONE is one of those 5-0 teams going into tomorrow. That group has some of the most sound ball control in the town with Keri Leimbach (Nebraska) leading the way. But they also have some really crafty shots up their sleeves that create a ton of difficult situations for teams. They also have yet to drop a set in this tournament, with only 3 of those being won by less than 5 points. NeONE has been cruising quite nicely themselves throughout the weekend.
On the flip side, both HJV and Northern Lights were undefeated until the very last match of Day 2 in their respective pools. HJV is a ginormous team. If we were to compare average heights along the front row, this team may be at the top by at least a couple inches. Northern Lights is in that sweet spot between, a solid sized team around the court and real nice ball control. Despite the losses for both HJV and Northern Lights, I think this could be anyone’s pool to win.
Gold Pool 3
This is another gold pool that will be tons of fun to watch shake down. ID CRUSH comes in as the number one team in this pool despite losing on Day 1 and Michigan Elite being undefeated. This is a particular match up that intrigues me largely due to the fact that this is a rematch from USAV Nationals. Michigan Elite got the best of them at Nationals, knocking CRUSH out of gold contention, so this could be another heated match up. Elite is firing really hard on their pins with Isabelle Busignani (Cincinnati) and Jess Costlow (Toledo) having big weekends. Meanwhile Tenesyn Frye (Houston) from CRUSH has been spreading the ball around really effectively.
Adrenaline is a surpriser to the party. This team is 3-2 currently and could maybe throw one of these two teams for a loop as well.
Gold Pool 4
Here’s another pool that is shaping up to be a doozy. This one could certainly be anyone’s to take, but I am putting my money on a big brawl between MKE Sting and Dynasty. Sting is one of those four undefeated teams this weekend. Led by the firepower of Madison Quest (Wisconsin), Quest has been unrelenting throughout the entire weekend. And Sting has had a really tough road thus far with the likes of ID CRUSH and Houston Skyline on their path. Dynasty dropped a heartbreaker to Club V today in a tight 3 set match. With the addition of Reese Messer (USC) and Abigail Mullen (USC), this team has the potential to be one of the last teams standing. Yet, there’s been some struggle this weekend. If Dynasty comes full swing tomorrow, we could have a real fun match up and maybe an upset.
Rounding out this pool, I wouldn’t count out Rockwood Thunder from this one either. While another 3-2 team, Thunder has been giving some big teams fits throughout the weekend. On Day 1, they had Michigan Elite on the ropes for bouts at a time and today, they nearly took a set off of 1st Alliance. Much like Dynasty, if Thunder can come out at full swing, a lot could happen.