Northern Lights: Mavs earn a bid in the 15s

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>15s is the year I start following 15s generally and a quick way to get on the radar is going deep in qualifier play! <strong>Mavs KC 15-1 </strong>traveled to Minnesota and left celebrating a Chiefs AFC title and a second-place finish in the Liberty division. They jumped out the gate with a dominant win over Iowa PowerPlex and looked strong in the second match with Summit. After a first-set win, they had difficulty sealing the deal in the second set and dropped it -22. The final set was a back-and-forth affair that ended with a Summit 16-14 win. The Kansas team did bounce back to win their final match of pool play to give them a second-place pool finish.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The second day started with a couple of wins, including one over local foe<strong> [program_tooltip program_id='428889' first='Dynasty' last=''] 15 Blue</strong>. The final match of pool play was against St. Louis-based <strong>[program_tooltip program_id='428799' first='Rockwood' last='Thunder'] 15 Navy</strong> in a crossover match. After grabbing the first set, Rockwood stormed back to win the next two and the match. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The loss sent Mavs to the gold bracket for a rematch with [program_tooltip program_id='428889' first='Dynasty' last=''] 15 Blue. The result was the same with a sweep. Their next match was against in-region team<strong> 417 Juniors 15 Elite</strong>. Mavs would win the first set in a tightly contested match but would dominate the second set, -9 to earn a spot in the semifinals. With a win, a bid was guaranteed and it proved to be all the motivation they needed as they would win in straight sets, with a tight 26-24 second set to finish the match.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>After clinching their bid, a championship was still at stake against another Iowa PowerPlex team. This Iowa team grabbed the first set 25-20 before the Kansas team took the second easily, -16. The third was even early but Iowa found a late run to grab the Northern Lights title. The Mavs roster consists of [player_tooltip player_id='357593' first='Emma' last='Hager'], [player_tooltip player_id='567543' first='Lainey' last='Barrett'], Avery Hemphill, Naomi Randall, Victoria Mudari, Becca Meyer, [player_tooltip player_id='485610' first='Riley' last='Martin'], [player_tooltip player_id='485632' first='Leighton' last='Benne'], and [player_tooltip player_id='529977' first='Olivia' last='Stevens']. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rockwood Navy 15 Thunder would end up finishing 3rd with a 7-1 record. Mavs KC 15-2 ended up fifth in the same division going 6-1 along the way. 417 Juniors 15 Elite had a strong showing also making the gold bracket and had a tie for fifth. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->