Nebraska’s Storylines and Questions as We “Leap” into March
Leap Day gives us an extra 24 hours to ponder what we might see this March. Let’s discuss that here. March is a pivotal month in the club volleyball season. Crucial qualifiers are on the calendar. Teams are honing their…
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Continue ReadingLeap Day gives us an extra 24 hours to ponder what we might see this March. Let’s discuss that here.
March is a pivotal month in the club volleyball season. Crucial qualifiers are on the calendar. Teams are honing their skills and dialing in lineups. It’s all coming together for the midseason grind.
Time to “leap” into March with a few storylines and lingering questions. What will we be looking for in the next 30 days? What’s happening on Prep Dig next month? It’s all here.
The Qualifier Slate
All eyes are on the next wave of qualifiers.
From a purely Nebraska perspective, February could be seen as a “gap” month between major national qualifiers. We finished January with the frenzy of NLQ activity in Minneapolis. That gave way to the doubleheader of February madness at Triple Crown NIT and the ASICS Presidents’ Day Classic. As high-profile as those events are, neither hands out GJNC bids at the end.
The narrative changes as we hit March. We’re anxiously waiting for the 16s to join the qualifier gauntlet, and the second wave of the Northern Lights Qualifier will be here before you know it. The March 22-24 event will put 16s squarely under the microscope after the 15s were dropped into the January wave this year. So many questions are yet to be answered about Nebraska’s Class of 2026, and Minneapolis will be a great fact-finding venue.
But that’s not all. Chicago’s Windy City Qualifier is starting to see some Nebraska representation in 2024. Teams from the Great Plains Region are trickling into the entry list for this competitive qualifier, and the first wave lands on the final weekend of March. As if this stretch wasn’t busy enough, some teams will be globetrotting between NLQ, Windy City, and April’s first wave of the Show Me Qualifier.
Buckle up. The stakes are rising as we flip the calendar.
New Discoveries and Regional Risers
Call this a lingering storyline from February’s Presidents’ Day Classic.
Mid-February is often when Nebraska’s best under-the-radar teams and athletes come to the forefront. We’ve covered many of these players in the last several days as we look back to some emerging stars from the holiday weekend. Our hunt for these hidden gems continues into March.
Look at spectacular placements from teams like River City Jrs 16 Navy and Club Legacy 15 Alpha at the Presidents’ Day Classic. These groups have proven themselves against the region’s best and deserve to be covered in more depth. March will present opportunities to do that through regional events–the Midwest Power League, for example.
This month also builds up anticipation for the aforementioned Show Me Qualifier, where Club Legacy, River City Jrs , Banzai, and others will likely excel. We’ll bring out small-town powerhouses like South Central NE, Nebraska Pride, and the high-flying 17s group from Minden. We’ll be ready.
18s Getting Dialed In
The 18s season is short. There’s a lot going on in March as we race toward a late-April conclusion.
We already have a couple of Great Plains 18s locked in for GJNC in Baltimore. Those squads will be laser-focused on finding the right combinations for the big stage. For everyone else, we might see a bit more of that “globetrotting” we mentioned earlier.
Even this weekend’s Boston Volleyball Festival is a subject of interest for a few Nebraska teams every year. We also have NEQ, MEQ and Music City on the map–qualifiers that have granted bids to past Nebraska 18s teams. Where will the magic arise this year?
At the same time, this isn’t just about counting 18s bids. We’re about to find out which teams are peaking at the right time in this blink-of-an-eye season.
What About Rankings?
Ready for the next rankings update? Let’s do it.
Here’s what we’re thinking for the timeline of our latest updates. Of course, these updates will be accompanied by all the content you’d expect. We’re also mulling over some names to include on our initial 2027 rankings set. Stay tuned.
2025 – March 4
2026 – March 11
2027 – March 18