NIT Triple Crown Power Pool Participants
In this article:
The highly anticipated NIT Triple Crown tournament is set to embark on Title Town…I mean Kansas City this weekend! This is one of the most hyped tournaments due to the number of quality teams traveling from all over the country.…
Access all of Prep Dig
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe highly anticipated NIT Triple Crown tournament is set to embark on Title Town…I mean Kansas City this weekend! This is one of the most hyped tournaments due to the number of quality teams traveling from all over the country. You will find your USAV, AAU, and JVA teams all in one spot, which rarely happens. The other highlight of the tournament is the Power Pools to kick off the tournament. This places the top teams in pools to face off immediately on day one. The outcome of the Power Pool doesn’t affect these teams’ ability to stay in the elite side of the tournament, while other teams are in smaller pools attempting to play their way into the elite tournament. Today, I want to discuss the teams placed in Power Pools to start the show.
18s
Power ‘] will start in the top pool when things get going on Saturday, in pool A. Power has double qualified already in the young qualifier season, winning MLK and Northern Lights. Their most recent trip to Salt Lake City saw a 2-1 day two be good enough for a third-place finish and just missing playing for another top-three finish. The team is deep with attackers but gets good defense and timely serving from Felicia Wu Felicia Wu 5'6" | S Blue Valley North | 2024 State KS . Their tournament will start with TAV 18 Black, Madfrog 18s N Green, and Coast 18-1, teams already qualified in 18 Open.
Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite picks up a spot in pool B. They are also qualified for open with a strong showing at MLK in Kansas City. They will look for similar success in the building they competed in last month. Thunder decided to head to South for Florida Fest, where they would double qualify after finishing third. The setter duo of Sammi Bergjans Sammi Bergjans 5'9" | S Incarnate Word Academy | 2024 State MO and Alyssa Nelson Alyssa Nelson 5'8" | S Wildwood | 2024 State MO has been steady in their final club season. The St. Louis team will take on Dallas Skyline, SCVC, and A5.
17s
Three teams we cover were awarded places in the 17s Power Pools. Two of these teams will be in the same pool and oddly play each other on day one. One of the goals has typically been to have teams face off from different parts of the country. Pool B will feature both Dynasty 17 Black and HPSTL 17 Royal. Dynasty features Abigail Mullen Abigail Mullen 6'3" | RS Liberty | 2025 State #3 Nation MO and Reese Messer Reese Messer 5'11" | S St. James | 2025 State #6 Nation KS . They had a 5th place showing at Northern Lights weeks back. Dynasty will get MIElite, HPSTL, and Legacy on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking of HPSTL 17 Royal, they haven’t played in the early season qualifiers but competed well in the Gateway League. They are a team that found success in 2023 and hopes to carry that over in 2024. They have a team of strong players and are led up front by Tera Greenberry and Lainey Waser Lainey Waser 6'2" | MB Rockwood Summit | 2025 State MO . Besides Dynasty , they will also play Houston Jrs. and Excel.
Power Pool D will feature Mavs 17-1 as they prepare to take on two Nebraska teams in VC Nebraska and Nebraska One. They will close out with A4 Volley. After a second-place output in the HOA Power League Qualifier, they went 5-0 on the first plate date a couple of weekends ago. Maegan Mills Maegan Mills 6'0" | OH Seaman | 2025 State KS , who had a great high school season, is a centerpiece on this team with all-everything Logan Parks Logan Parks 5'11" | S Blue Valley North | 2025 State #8 Nation KS .
16s
Pohaku 16-1 is the lone team we follow in the Power Pool in C. They are back after a strong 15s season and turned some heads and frustrated some teams in the 18 USA division at MLK, where they finished second. Ella Florez Ella Florez 5'9" | S Mill Valley | 2026 State KS , Grace Martin Grace Martin 5'11" | OH St. Thomas Aquinas | 2026 State KS , and Willow Weninger Willow Weninger 6'1" | RS Blue Valley Southwest | 2026 State KS are a few of the strong players on this team. They will get Team Pineapple, Milwaukee Sting, and Vision 16 Gold starting at 8:30 am on Saturday.
15s
HPSTL 15 Royal and Power ‘] 15 Black join the Power Pools in C. Power journeyed to the Northern Lights qualifier and just missed getting an early bid with a third-place finish. HPSTL played up in the 16-18 division in the Gateway League and went 8-3. PVA 15 Elite will start play in pool D. They also went to Northern Lights and went 5-3, solid for 5th place.