Midwest Clubs Hit "Gold" Heading Into Championship Saturday

When glancing at the final eight teams, or even the 16 teams competing in the challenge matches on day three, there is always a heavy presence of California and Texas teams. They have dominated on a large scale for years, but in 2024 there will be a heavy Midwest presence in the final eight of 16 Open and 17 Open.   1st Alliance and MKE Sting Strike “Gold”   1st Alliance has their 16 Gold and 17 Gold team in the final eight. This comes at no surprise based on the talent and success these teams have shown all season. 17 Gold was the 16 Open runner up finishers in 2023 in Chicago and have been on a mission to get back on top. They have gone undefeated so far at USAV and have only dropped one set. They will face off with Surfside 17 Legends Loria in a quarterfinal Saturday morning.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1809320615071084591 </div></figure>   I was courtside for the 1st Alliance 16 Gold vs Houston Skyline 16 Royal match with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals. It was the battle of Big Ten commits with 1st Alliance featuring Carolyn Tarnow (Wisconsin), Nikola Bulatovic (Iowa), and Elle Schara (Purdue). Houston Skyline was coming at them with Halle Thompson (Wisconsin) and Jayden Robinson (Nebraska). They also have Lucy Tinnell (Baylor) and Blair Thiebauld (Louisville). Houston Skyline is one of the most physical and athletic teams in the event. Their pregame hitting lines are no joke. However, 1st Alliance stuck to what they do across their entire club and what they have done all season. They dominated the serve and pass game, they played with a high IQ, and swing big when they had an opening. Bulatovic was the maestro for this squad as a setter where she was offensive on her own and was able to keep the other side of the net off balanced. Elle Schara was crafty on the outside using a variety of shots to score points and keep the other side guessing. And then there is Tarnow who dominated the net offensively and defensively. They wore down Houston Skyline with a healthy dose of clean ball control which led to a 2-0 sweep and a spot in the elite eight where they will face a familiar opponent.   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://x.com/PrepDigChris/status/1809337841237033177 </div></figure>   MKE Sting 16 Gold qualified for open at their final qualifier of the season in Philly. They went 2-3 in pool play advancing on a tie breaker. They went 1-1 this morning and still found their way into a challenge match where they would face Mintonette m.61 - the top seed with a loaded resume of major tournament titles from this club season. In set one it was all Mintonette, dominating 25-14. But set two the kids from Milwaukee just wouldn't go away and snagged the victory in set two. I was sitting on the stage on the Mintonette side for set three and it was as if you could feel the pressure on that side of the net. Sting was playing with “house money”, nothing to lose. They even were down 5-9 when middle blocker [player_tooltip player_id='249665' first='Kennedy' last='Tisdale'] went back to serve. She came off huge rattling off a run and was eventually part of the match winning block that would send Sting into the final eight. It was an emotional win for the “Gold” team who was oh so close to playing in the National Division and then not making out of pool play.   MKE Sting 16 Gold will meet 1st Alliance 16 Gold Saturday morning to kick off the elite eight of 16 Open. These teams are all too familiar with each other. They met in the 15 National Division championship that went in favor of Sting. In the past month, they have played three time the past month, all of them in favor of 1st Alliance.    Its When You Win (And Lose)   Some of the pools finished Thursday with some wild ties regards to match wins and losses and even set wins and losses. Forza1 North 16 One was 2-3 in their pool, advanced to a gold pool where they would go 1-1 and swept Houston Juniors 16 Elite to advance. Pohaku 16-1 was as a tie breaker away from not advancing out of their pool. After going 2-3 in their first five matches they were able to beat Coast 16-1 to advance to the challenge match. They were able to sneak a three set win against Vision out of California. This was a similar route to how they advanced to the final eight in 2023 when they upset SCVC. In 17 Open, Michigan Elite went 2-3 (6-8 for sets) but found their way out of their pool. They scored a big win over TAV 17 Black Jon to head to a challenge match. After dropping the first set to Coast they would go on to win the next two and win the match, advancing to the 17 Open Quarterfinals. On the other side of the coin is OT 17 T Aaron who went 5-0 in pool play and 1-1 in the gold pools this morning. However, in their pool all three teams went 1-1 with OT on the outside of that draw due to their set record.

When glancing at the final eight teams, or even the 16 teams competing in the challenge matches on day three, there is always a heavy presence of California and Texas teams. They have dominated on a large scale for years, but in 2024 there will be a heavy Midwest presence in the final eight of 16 Open and 17 Open.