Maryland Juniors 14 Grabs a Bronze in AAU

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This is our second success story from the AAU championships in Orlando, Florida. Our first post was hidden in our story about players who stood out at the Stock Up Showcase. At the end of the post, we reported about [program_tooltip program_id='494409' first='Blue' last='Ridge'] 18 taking fifth in the Premier Division.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We have another success story in Orlando. The Maryland Juniors 14 team took third place in the 14 Premier Division. Up until that semifinal match against 208 Elite they had won their first 11 matches. The only match that was not a sweep was the first match when they lost the second set to MVA Friedman 27-25. Maryland Juniors would go on to win the third set 15-9. They would then go on to sweep their next nine matches to qualify for the gold bracket.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In their opening match of the gold bracket they would face their first opponent of the tournament, MV Friedman, who had given them their first and only set loss. This time they would sweep MV Frieman 25-18, 25-20. With the win they advanced to the semifinals where they faced LV Elite. Advanced Event System (AES) ranked LV Elite number 22 nationally. On the flip side Maryland Juniors ranked 15 nationally.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On this day LV Elite proved too powerful, sweeping Maryland Juniors 25-21, 25-18. LV Elite would go on to sweep Pineapple Black 25-20, 25-19 to win the championship. The two teams had also faced off in the first match of the tournament. LV won in three, taking the third set 15-13.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:image {"id":782309,"width":"410px","height":"auto","sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} --> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://prepdig.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/06/Prep-Dig-DMV-Freshman-Showcase.jpg?w=1024" alt="William Leucht" class="wp-image-782309" style="width:410px;height:auto" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">[player_tooltip player_id='748487' first='Sierra' last='Thomas']</figcaption></figure> <!-- /wp:image --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Many of the players on this Maryland 14 team won top performer awards while competing at the Frosh showcase and the Stock-up Showcase in Rockville Maryland a couple weeks ago. Libero <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='748518' first='Harper' last='Walker']</strong> and left side <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='748487' first='Sierra' last='Thomas']</strong> won top performer awards at the frosh showcase. In addition, libero <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='754613' first='Charlotte' last='Aus']</strong> and setter <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='749358' first='Eva' last='Bujanauskas']</strong> won top performer awards at the Stock up showcase. While left side <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='622282' first='Emerson' last='Wolfe']</strong> did not win a top performer award, it was only because she had previously won an award at the Frosh showcase last year. What she won this year was the Avoli Stock up Showcase MVP award.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Next, Maryland Juniors will travel to Dallas to play in the Open Division in the USAV Junior Nationals beginning June 25. They will compete in a six team pool. What we know about them is as a team they are all top performers.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Libero Huskies Appear in Gold Bracket</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Libero Huskes 14 team also competed well in the Select Division. They won their first three matches on the first day. Unfortunately, in their first match of the second day they lost to EliteVBTC in three sets, falling in the third set 15-6. In a twist of fate Elite VBTC was their first opponent in the gold bracket. Again, Elite would prove too much beating the Libero Huskies in three, taking the third set 15-13.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The only other team to beat the Huskies in the tournament was Miami Elite. They swept them 25-22, 25-14 in the first match of the third round. Libero would recover to win their next two matches while also winning a challenge match to qualify for the gold bracket.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ultimately, New Wave Tsunami would go on to win the Select Division, sweeping Mintonette Sports 26-24, 25-17. The Libero Huskies would settle for ninth place.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I watched a little bit of the Libero Huskies 14 at the East Coast championship. They finished in third place in the tournament while playing in the Select Division. The only team they lost to in the tournament was Passion 27-25, 25-20. Passion ended up winning the tournament. The Select Division was the lower division while the Beast of the East, which was won by Maryland Juniors was the highest division.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The two middles for Libero<strong> [player_tooltip player_id='779106' first='Isabella' last='Jeantel'] </strong>and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='785509' first='Pia' last='Pardikar']</strong> impressed the most. Because they were playing in the second division I did not watch them as much as I would have liked. When the Libero Huskies played in the Chesapeake Bid Regional Championship they struggled, losing all three of their matches. All three matches they lost were against teams that earned a bid to Junior Nationals, Maryland Juniors, BAVA Wave and MVSA Force.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->