Prep Dig Gauntlet Divisions, Waves, and Locations
The Gauntlet is coming! Yes, the Prep Dig Gauntlet is back in 2025 with an expanded field full of some of the top teams in the country. We have gone from a field of 64 teams in 2024 to nearly 140 teams across three facilities, with teams coming from eight states.
With the expansion of this tournament, we have made changes to the format to ensure a great event experience for all teams and primed for college coaches to be in attendance.
In prior years, we have done a power pool format of the top eight teams in the tournament, with other pools having a chance to play into the gold bracket. This created extra matches and made for a long day of competition on Sunday. With national tournaments approaching and many of these athletes heading to college camps over the next weeks following the Gauntlet, we wanted to cut down on time on the court and allow more time to travel on Sunday.
We will have the top eight teams compete in an “Elite” division. The next 12 teams in each age group will compete in the “Open” division. Elite and open divisions of the 15s-17s will compete at the Milwaukee Sting Center on Saturday, June 7. The “Premier” division will be the teams who initially signed up for this division. Divisions, Waves, and Locations are listed below.
How did we determine the “Elite” and “Open” divisions?
Any team that has qualified for the Open Division at USAV Nationals in Dallas is automatically in the Elite division. From there, we looked at teams based on their resume of major events they competed in, finishes at qualifier/major events, what division they qualified in for nationals, and overall body of work. This was very comparable to the NCAA selection committee in regards to who made the elite and open divisions. We made the decision to not have multiple teams from the same club in the elite division to avoid intra-club matchups. We believe this format will have teams compete with others who they will be competing against in their national tournaments.
Changes will be made in AES next week. Our elite and open divisions will be closed while we will keep our premier registration open.
