Junior Nationals Day 4 - Metro 15 and Paramount Jazz to Gold

<p>In the Junior Nationals the higher you go the tougher it is to win. Nine teams from the Chesapeake Region earned their way into the first Division to compete in the gold bracket. Only two teams survived to play in the gold bracket.</p>   <h1 class="wp-block-heading">Metro 15 and [program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] Jazz 14 Earn their way to Gold</h1>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Metro 15</h2>    <p class="text-gray-700">She lists at 5'11" but when she stands on the court with her other teammates she appears a little shorter. Early in the season when they played Scarlett they used her as a left side. With<strong> [player_tooltip player_id='622282' first='Emerson' last='Wolfe']</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='750050' first='Raquel' last='Telly']</strong> on the roster that left Metro with three players for two positions.</p>   <p class="text-gray-700">For this tournament Scarlett has been hitting right side. With <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='746506' first='Carolyn' last='Maria']</strong> setting a 5/1 Scarlett stays in the back row to take advantage of her ability to power three meter sets.</p>   <p class="text-gray-700">In the third set against Skyline, Metro found themselves down 9-12. Against a team with their talent all they needed to do was play side out volleyball to win the match.</p>   <p class="text-gray-700">Skyline hit a ball out to give the serve to Metro. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='753073' first='Aniston' last='Williams']</strong> put up one of her many crucial blocks to make it 11-12. After a Skyline kill down the line Aniston got the serve back banging the ball off the middle block for a point. At this stage Metro could not play side out volleyball. Scarlett took care of that rifling a spike off the Skyline block to tie it 13-13. A<strong> [player_tooltip player_id='750050' first='Raquel' last='Telly']</strong> kill gave Metro their first lead of the set since 7-6. Scarlett then does what she does best with a cross court kill to the middle of the floor for a 15-13 win.</p>   <p class="text-gray-700">Of course, none of these actions could happen without the incredible defense of <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='755672' first='Jaylin' last='Park']. </strong>She found a number of different ways of stopping the Skyline missiles from hitting the floor allowing rallies to continue.</p>    <p> For this tournament Metro decided to play without one of their better hitters. That is because they used <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='746506' first='Carolyn' last='Maria']</strong> to set a 5/1. She has shown an exceptional ability to find the hitters to put the ball away. And when she makes a mistake she shakes it off to focus on the next play.</p>   <p>Metro started the tournament the first day 3-0. The next day they lost two matches. The first getting upset by until then a winless Actyve Navy team, Even after they had won the first set. Metro also won the first set against Madfrog 25-22 but lost the next two 12-25, 12-15. Despite the two second day losses they still managed to finish second in their pool advancing to the first division.</p>   <p>Their first match of the morning came against their Chesapeake rival [program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] Nick. [program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] had just lost to Legacy and needed the win for any chance to appear in the gold. In both sets they battled early but Metro carried more consistency with their firepower. They were able to win pretty easily 25-17, 25-19. In both sets, as the game got into the teens Metro pulled together a string of points to break away.</p>   <p>Legacy dominated Metro the first set 25-15. [player_tooltip player_id='748513' first='Scarlett' last='Netherton'] provided the big block to give Metro a 24-20 lead in the second set. She then finished it off with a tool off the block for a 25-21 win. The third set Metro carried a 10-7 lead but their passing broke down. At 12-12 Legacy scored the last three points to win 15-12.</p>    <p class="text-gray-700">Against Skyline [player_tooltip player_id='753073' first='Aniston' last='Williams'] was the star of the show for the first set. The Skyline hitters seemed unstoppable with their high verticals raining bombs on the Metro side of the court. Aniston stopped the rain stringing together three consecutive blocks to give the hitters cause for pause for the remainder of the match.</p>   <p class="text-gray-700">[player_tooltip player_id='750047' first='Caroline' last='Conroy'] also stopped some hits with timely blocks. [player_tooltip player_id='748513' first='Scarlett' last='Netherton'] smashed some big hits down the line to lead Metro to a 25-23 first set win.</p>   <p>Aniston was a big pick up for Metro from Maryland Juniors. The three amigas from that group, Aniston, Scarlett and Emerson Wolf have all found starting roles to enhance the Metro offense.</p>    <p>While Metro did not win the second set, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='746506' first='Carolyn' last='Maria']</strong> gave Skyline something to think about in that loss. When in the front row she buried an overset. She then followed that with two consecutive kills on high second passes. Skyline won the set 25-23. However, when Carolyn was in the front row the spectators kept on shouting "watch the setter dump".</p>   <p>In the third set Aniston started it off with a kill in the middle as well as a block to give Metro a 2-0 lead. That lead evaporated and at one point Skyline led 9-12. The [player_tooltip player_id='748513' first='Scarlett' last='Netherton'] evaluation tells it all what happened next.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">[program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] Jazz 14</h2>    <p class="text-gray-700">[program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] Jazz has a number of pins who can hurt you. Leyla stands out as one of those pins. At 5'9" with a 9'3" approach jump she finds enough space over the net to put the ball away. Those deep hits in the corner are the toughest to dig.</p>   <p class="text-gray-700">She also plays a solid six rotations with the ability to put some velocity on the ball with her back row attacks. Leyla will attend Paul VI next year. It would not surprise me to see her on the varsity roster her frosh season.</p>    <p>[program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] came into the tournament as the third seed in their pool. They lost their first match to the second seeded EU Black 25-21, 25-21. After that they won four straight to finish second in their pool, including a 16-14 win in the third set of their last match.</p>   <p>In the opener of their first division bracket play they lost to Wave Nancy in three sets but were able to beat Lions Cityside in three. That brought them to a crossover against a first place team in another division. They were able to beat Peak Elite 25-19, 25-11.</p>   <h1 class="wp-block-heading">Falling Short of Battling for Gold</h1>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">[program_tooltip program_id='450416' first='East' last='Coast Volleyball Club'] Black</h2>    <p class="text-gray-700">Natalie sets a 6/2 for [program_tooltip program_id='450416' first='East' last='Coast Volleyball Club'] Black along with <strong>Payton Ware</strong>. Love the hustle of Natalie, especially on the defensive side. She makes every attempt to get to a ball. She has nice hands with the ability to execute her quick tempo sets in the middle.</p>   <p class="text-gray-700">At 5'6" she may not grow much taller but with her defensive play at the setter position she has the versatility to play libero. She will play for Hickory her frosh season. With her seasoned ability to distribute sets it would not surprise me if she makes varsity her frosh season.</p>    <p>East Coast started out strong with four straight wins before swept by Ka Ulukoa in their last match. It got them to the first Division but they were swept by both teams. A win in the crossover put them in the bronze bracket.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">BAVA Waves 14</h2>   <p>BAVA also finished second in their pool, being swept in their second match by Top Select. They were also swept in their three team pool and lost in the crossover knocking them to the F1B flight.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">BAVA Blaze 15</h2>   <p>BAVA lost to Sunshine in their last match of pool play to finish second. In the first set of their third match they lost <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='787925' first='Camryn' last='Bedell']</strong> to injury. While they were able to finish second in their pool to advance to Division I with the loss of her fire power from the left side it hurt the offense. BAVA was able to achieve a split in their three team pool play but lost the crossover 25-16, 25-10 to drop into the SILB bracket. After seeing Camryn after the three team pool play the injury seems to be minor and she should be ready for the high school season. </p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">[program_tooltip program_id='494409' first='Blue' last='Ridge'] 15</h2>   <p>[program_tooltip program_id='494409' first='Blue' last='Ridge'] won their last match against MVA Rise Academy to settle into third place on a tie breaker. Unfortunately, they were swept in their three team first division pool then lost the crossover match in three to drop to F1. </p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">[program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] Nick 15</h2>   <p>[program_tooltip program_id='476729' first='Paramount' last=''] somehow managed to get into the First Division despite a 2-3 record. They pulled a big upset with a win against Arizona Storm in their first match of the day. This carried over into pool play allowing them to advance to the first division. They won a head to head tie breaker for third place over Arizona Storm. Unfortunately, they were a little overmatched in the first division getting swept by Metro and Legacy in the three team pool. They also got swept by H Skyline Royal in the crossover. That dropped them to F1.</p>   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Metro 14 Travel</h2>   <p>At the beginning of the tournament they looked dominant, winning their first four matches, though the last two went three sets 18-16 and 15-13. They were swept by Legacy in the last match to knock them down to second in their pool. In the three team first division pool they lost to both Pineapple and Dynasty. A 25-10 loss to Pineapple removed any hope of them advancing via a tiebreaker route. Even if they could beat Dynasty in their last match and all three teams finished 1-1 that point differential was too big to make up in a tie breaker. That is why teams should never quit in what appears to be a blow out loss.</p>   <p></p>   <p></p>

In the Junior Nationals the higher you go the tougher it is to win. Nine teams from the Chesapeake Region earned their way into the first Division to compete in the gold bracket. Only two teams survived to play in the gold bracket.