Playing for Gold at the PNQ!

<!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Washington squads in contention at the 16's Age Division.</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Several Washington teams have pushed into the Gold Bracket at The Pacific Northwest Qualifier in Spokane. Five squads have positioned themselves for a chance at the championship in the 16 Open and 16 USA Divisions. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Sudden Impact Volleyball Club 16 Thunder- 16 Open. </strong>The Thunder head into Sunday with a 3-3 overall record, with critical wins on day one versus SG Elite 16 Roshambo and a crossover win to push into Gold over NPJ Salem 16 National to close out Saturday. In the win over NPJ, setter <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='249301' first='Maya' last='Quitquit'] </strong>closed out a 25 -23 set 1 victory with an ace at the Podium. Sudden Impact turned it up in set 2 behind big swings from outside <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='364043' first='Julianne' last='Lee']</strong>, inspired defense from libero <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='251026' first='Kaitlyn' last='Nguyen']</strong>, and several big serving runs, including one from <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='243689' first='Selana' last='Morales']</strong>, to push the team to a 20-10 lead that was insurmountable for the team from Salem. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">16 USA</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Puyallup Juniors 16 National.</strong> PJVBC steps into Sunday with a perfect 6-0 match record. Key wins in three over NorCal 16 Black and Oly Reign 16 Gold powered the team into day three. PJVBC has Mad Frog 16 on the opposite end of the bracket; the team from Texas is also 6-0 on the weekend. <strong>Genesis Watkins </strong>is having a terrific tournament scoring the ball; she is very effective coming off the right side. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='459079' first='Kathryn' last='Harris']</strong> controls the action like an experienced veteran; the setter/attacker is a hard-charging competitor who will do what it takes to help her team win. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Shockwave 16. </strong>The Tri-Cities squad will be 3-3 headed into the Gold Bracket and played Vision, Lava, and SIVA<strong> </strong>close in all their 3 set losses.<strong> [player_tooltip player_id='497246' first='Bailey' last='Vladimiroff']</strong> worked hard to find all her attackers and spread the offense smartly. Outsides <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='455199' first='Keyala' last='Krumland']</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='364064' first='Cali' last='Schoenberg']</strong> benefited from well-located sets and terminated nicely when the team was in the system. Shockwave has a chance at instant redemption against a Vision team they battled with on day one, dropping a tight match 14-25,25-18,12-15. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Apex NW 16 Summit.</strong> Summit will be 4-2 on Sunday; a big victory over UC Elite 16 Oliver in three was critical, and the team is in a position to make a run. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='251030' first='Rian' last='Stephan']</strong> put together a long serving run versus CRU Max 16, and she is making athletic plays for a 6'2" player in the back row. Setter <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='484727' first='Brooklyn' last='Larrabee']</strong> and outside <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='468570' first='Hayden' last='Niewiadomski'] </strong>are difference makers with a great connection. Larabee uses her middles and chooses perfect spots to dump a ball over and score. Niewiadomski will eat up smaller blockers, hammering through the block or crushing balls down the line to score. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Oly Reign 16 Gold. </strong>4-1 after starting day one in a three-team pool, Oly Reign has only lost to Puyallup Juniors in three sets so far during the tournament. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='333217' first='Kinley' last='Smith']</strong> has been delivering kills from the outside, and right-side <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='393775' first='Destiny' last='Mars']</strong> is playing well and balancing the offensive attack. MB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='555687' first='Grace' last='Scriven']</strong> and right-side <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='524823' first='Kealani' last='Naipo'] </strong>are a dynamic blocking duo when they play together. #14 and #11 had a monster block against PJVBC and several more during the tournament's first two days. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->