Day 3 - Metro 15 Earns a Gold Bracket Slot

One of the toughest accomplishments in the junior volleyball world is to earn a spot to play in the gold bracket at USAV Junior Nationals. You battle for three days and it only takes a tiny slip up and you find yourself in silver. Of the 18 DMV teams competing only Metro 15 earned an appearance in the gold bracket. Four other teams were eligible Friday, but their effort fell short.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Metro 15</h2>   <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://prepdig.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/08/Ana-Woods.jpg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-589283" style="width:332px;height:auto" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">ana woods</figcaption></figure>   In my opinion this team has the talent that they should be playing open. They fell short in the National Qualifiers but they are rolling now. In a number of big tournaments they finished first, Capitol Hill Classic, JVA Summerfest and the Mid Atlantic Power League (MAPL). Because of a ninth place finish in the Sunshine Qualifier and a seventh place finish in the Northeast Qualifier they fell short of an Open appearance.   The morning did not start well for them, Texas Storm from Texas pummeled them in the first set 25-16. The second set started rough as well with deficits of 2-5, 7-12 and 8-13. A [player_tooltip player_id='536719' first='Katherine' last='Mitchell'] kill gave her the serve with a 9-13 deficit. She has broken out a jump spin that rifles past the net with excellent velocity. A seven point service run that included three aces and many free ball returns gave Metro a 16-13 lead.   Metro kept the lead until Giselle Gandara put together back to back kills and Elizabeth Conde hit on back to back aces to tie the score at 22-22. [player_tooltip player_id='536719' first='Katherine' last='Mitchell'] ended the three point service run by Conde to repossess the lead while a [player_tooltip player_id='536721' first='Ana' last='Woods'] right side kill put them one point from victory. [player_tooltip player_id='625593' first='Cairo' last='Turner'] finished it off with a rousing block and you could feel the coachew sigh of relief when that game ended..   Metro did not mess around in the third set. After a [player_tooltip player_id='536719' first='Katherine' last='Mitchell'] kill gave them a 2-1 lead they would never relinquish it. [player_tooltip player_id='536728' first='Lalah' last='Washington'] and [player_tooltip player_id='536721' first='Ana' last='Woods'] each contributed two early kills from the right side while [player_tooltip player_id='612397' first='Eliana' last='Koram'] added two kills and a block towards the middle of the set. Garrett Mitchell finished it off with a block and kill for the 15-11 win. Not easy, but it never is.   In their next match they rolled through Honolulu 25-15 and 25-18. [player_tooltip player_id='787533' first='Chika' last='Onukwugha'] started to get on a roll stringing together seven kills with five coming in the second set. Libero [player_tooltip player_id='612399' first='Riley' last='Ko'] played excellent defense while also contributing two aces in the first set.   The final test came a challenge match against Texas Legacy Elite. Towards the end of the set it appeared that Metro won the set when Texas Legacy hit the ball out. While Metro was celebrating a victory one of the girls calling lines signaled touch. After a conference with the official the out call was reversed changing the score to 24-24. Texas Legacy served the ball out but a roll shot kill returned the serve to them at 25-25. Their serve forced Metro to pass the ball over the net, but when the Texas Legacy middle jumped to spike it back she failed to reach it. The ball landed harmlessly on the Legacy side of the court to give Metro serve back with a 26-25 lead. [player_tooltip player_id='612399' first='Riley' last='Ko'] ended it with an ace, 27-25.   Metro won the second set rather easily 25-17. The day was done. On to the gold.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">14 Open - Metro and Maryland Juniors</h2>   <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://prepdig.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/02/72-Paetyn-Brown.jpg?w=886" alt="" class="wp-image-753456" style="width:205px;height:auto" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">[player_tooltip player_id='748492' first='Paetyn' last='Brown']</figcaption></figure>   Despite finishing 2-3 and placing fourth in their six team pool Maryland Juniors still advanced to Group 1 with an opportunity to pursue gold. Their first test came against KC Power. They battled them to 20-20 in the first set. Unfortunately, KC Power scored the last five points for the win.   In the second set Maryland Juniors started strong with three early aces from [player_tooltip player_id='748492' first='Paetyn' last='Brown'] to give them a 6-3 lead. KC Power came back with a 4 point service run to take an 8-6 lead. Despite the four kills from [player_tooltip player_id='622282' first='Emerson' last='Wolfe'] and five by [player_tooltip player_id='748513' first='Scarlett' last='Netherton'] Maryland Juniors fell 25-21. A three set loss to Top Select put them third in their pool, enough to eliminate them from the gold bracket run. They did beat United in three to earn a place in bronze.   Metro 14 also finished with a 2-3 record the first two days of pool play but they finished in third place. In their first match they reverted back to day one when they struggled passing the ball to the net, creating a number of out of system sets. This also took out the middle for hitting and allowed the blockers to cheat outside. In the first set with the score tied 15-15 Metro lost the next ten points to lose 25-15. They also collapsed during the second set While down by just one 16-17 they ruptured to lose 25-16.   After losing the opener in the first set of their second match they managed to escape with a 25-23 win in the second set. Down 14-13 in the final set [player_tooltip player_id='746506' first='Carolyn' last='Maria'] mashed a clutch kill from the right side to tie the game at 14-14. [player_tooltip player_id='762240' first='Timea' last='Ioana Vladoianu'], who struggled the previous match got the crucial kill to put them up by one. A [player_tooltip player_id='750050' first='Raquel' last='Telly'] ace polished it off for 16-14 win.   This gave Metro an opportunity to play the talented Mad Frog team for a chance to advance into gold bracket, a tough task since they had yet to lose a match. They battled Mad Frog in the first set before falling 27-25. Mad Frog took control of the second set to win 25-15. That Mad Frog team carries plenty of talent with some leapers on that team. Professional basketball player Jason Chandler was at the game to watch his daughter Sayge Chandler play middle. Jason was quite gracious allowing a number of girls to pose with him to take selfies. I don't think he turned one girl down. He even brough his son with him who got a clip during the game with a phone number.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Freedom - MVSA Force and Charge</h2>   MVSA Charge was swept in their bracket, although the second match went three. Left side [player_tooltip player_id='778720' first='Jordyn' last='Goh'] and middle [player_tooltip player_id='778696' first='Lailah' last='Rogers'] provided the offense. The three consecutive losses dropped them down to Flight.   MVSA Force was swept in the first match but swept back in the second match. The other two teams in their pool also split leaving a 3 way tie for first. MVSA won the tie breaker 15-13 to earn a spot in silver.

One of the toughest accomplishments in the junior volleyball world is to earn a spot to play in the gold bracket at USAV Junior Nationals. You battle for three days and it only takes a tiny slip up and you find yourself in silver. Of the 18 DMV teams competing only Metro 15 earned an appearance in the gold bracket. Four other teams were eligible Friday, but their effort fell short.