Missouri and Triple Crown: How It Went

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The invite-only tournament had some Missouri representation with teams from East to West and in between portions of the state. Here is how it went for some of those teams.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>15s</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>HPSTL 15 Royal </strong>fought their way to a 13th-place finish. They started the tournament going 1-2 in a stacked [program_tooltip program_id='428794' first='Power' last=''] Pool before winning their next two matches, including a challenge match. Their final record would be 3-4. [player_tooltip player_id='729467' first='Gillian' last='Pfeiffer'] was strong in the middle all weekend and showed a good slide game. St. Louis counterpart <strong>[program_tooltip program_id='428799' first='Rockwood' last='Thunder'] 15 Elite </strong>finished 71st after a 7-2 weekend. Their first two pools saw them go 2-1 before finishing the tournament with three straight wins. [player_tooltip player_id='545008' first='Aubrey' last='Toti'] was bringing the fire from the left pin bouncing the ball all over the court. <strong>Mizuno Club North 15 Ang</strong> and <strong>Invasion 15 Black</strong> finished their tournaments bundled together at 107 and 109 respectively. Club North had a 7-2 record including five wins in a row before dropping their final match. They got good play on the pins from [player_tooltip player_id='666872' first='Payton' last='Osegueda'] and [player_tooltip player_id='778340' first='Kenzie' last='Huhman']. Invasion, behind stellar setter play from [player_tooltip player_id='778345' first='Mia' last='Roberts'], finished to matches above .500 going 5-3. The middle of the state had representation with <strong>417 MoJrs 15 Elite</strong> rounding out the group finishing at 124. They went 4-3, going 2-1 over the first two days of play. Cora Kubik played well in six rotations over three days. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>16s</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>HPSTL 16 Royal</strong> had the highest finish among Missouri-based teams with a 29th-place showing. They earned a [program_tooltip program_id='428794' first='Power' last=''] Pool spot and went 2-1 beating A5 and Mizuno Long Beach. They came back the next morning and won their challenge match taking down Pineapple. They ran into a rough streak of games dropping their last three matches in elite play. [player_tooltip player_id='544673' first='Marlee' last='Steiner'] was impressive with her blocking numbers over the weekend. <strong>[program_tooltip program_id='428799' first='Rockwood' last='Thunder'] 16 Elite</strong> went 5-2, good for 37th place. They went 3-0 on day one earning a chance at a challenge match, which was a tough loss to PVA 16 Elite in three. [player_tooltip player_id='475328' first='Audrey' last='Schaeffer'] played well in the libero jersey. The third team that calls Missouri home in the 16s was <strong>417 MoJrs 16 Elite</strong>. Their record of 4-3 was good for 135th. They had matching 2-1 records over the first two days before dropping their sole match on the third day. [player_tooltip player_id='464561' first='Ziah' last='Schmutz'] affected the game in many facets throughout the tournament. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>17s</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[program_tooltip program_id='428799' first='Rockwood' last='Thunder'] 17 Elite</strong> and <strong>HPSTL 17 Royal</strong> represented St. Louis in the 17s age division. Rockwood finished 53rd and HPSTL 69th. Rockwood went 3-4. They went 2-1 on the first day but dropped their day two challenge match to Arizona Storm. Libero Addy Wiese is a fun player to watch defensively. HPSTL had a 4-3 showing and finished the tournament strong winning three of their final four matches. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>18s</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[program_tooltip program_id='428799' first='Rockwood' last='Thunder'] 18 Elite</strong> had a 4-4 record, good for 19th over the three days in Kansas City. They opened in a [program_tooltip program_id='428794' first='Power' last=''] Pool and went 1-2. They took care of business in their challenge match then went 2-2 in the Elite bracket rounds to finish the tournament. <strong>417 MoJrs 18 Elite</strong> finished in 67th with a 3-4 record. They started the tournament 1-2 in pool play but had a couple of tough losses that included extra points in both matches. In all, they had four sets in the weekend that went extra points. <strong>HPSTL 18 Royal </strong>had a 75th-place finish after three days. They captured their first win in their opening match before having a streak of four defeats before finding the win column again. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->