Bid-ness Report: Who’s on the Hunt for a Bid at NLQ 18 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 18 Open at the 2024 Northern Lights Qualifier has been a…
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It’s Day 2 here in Minneapolis and the field is set for Day 3!
The 18 Open at the 2024 Northern Lights Qualifier has been a real doozy. With no teams coming into the final day of the tournament undefeated, it just shows you how tight this field of teams are to each other. Premier Nebraska and MKE Sting are atop the standings with a record of 5-1, and right behind them are four teams with 2 losses each.
This was a smaller field of teams compared to the 17 Open Division with only 17 teams. However, due to the amount of parity going on, we have had ourselves quite the show. Let’s take a look at who all is in the race for a bid tomorrow.
18 Open Gold Pool
Premier Nebraska 18 Gold | MKE Sting 18 Gold |
KC Power 18-1 | A5 18 Marc |
Unlike the 17 Open Division, 18 Open has already had quite a few teams qualify due to the MLK Qualifiers a few weekends ago. Of the two teams coming into the weekend with bids, Premier Nebraska and KC Power, both are in the gold pool. Due to trickle down, this means both MKE Sting and A5 will receive bids just by taking part in tomorrow’s competition. Takes somewhat of the fun out of tomorrow’s pool play, but this creates a very interesting situation for that third and FINAL bid from NLQ. First through fourth are taken care of, whoever finishes fifth snags it. This means the Silver Pool becomes a frenzy for that last bid.
18 Open Silver Pool
FC 18 Elite | VC United 181 Elite |
MN Select 18-1 | Pohaku 18-1 |
Whoever comes out the silver champ, goes home with a bid! This pool is a real interesting one. Purely based off of the results thus far, MN Select is the favorite. They are one of four teams to have five wins. However, MN Select earned both of their two losses on Day 2 which bumped them out of gold. Despite this, a rally back to Day 1 form could result in an open bid.
For the other three squads, they’re all sitting around the .500 range for wins/losses. Pohaku betters VC and FC by going 4-3, 10-8 in sets. FC Elite sits at 3-3 on an 8-7 split in sets. Meanwhile VC United has only 2 wins on the weekend, going 0-3 in Day 2 action. Pohaku earned a big win over KC Power today in a 3 set win, 17-15 in the decider. FC Elite has themselves wins over Pohaku and Nebraska Premier. VC United, despite going winless on day 2, they were able to push A5 and Premier Nebraska to 3 sets each.
Tomorrow’s pool could be anyone’s for the taking. Each of these teams have seen each other once before in this qualifier and have become pretty battle tested. With a bid on the line, we’ll see who rises to the occasion.