Top Talent on Display in 17 Open Northern Lights

<p>No shortage of talent on display in the 17 open division at the Northern Lights Qualifier in Omaha over the weekend. No teams walked away with a bid but the competition gets them ready for the next opportunity in the coming months. 3 of the 4 Missouri/Kansas teams finished in consecutive places. Each team was knocked out of bid contention after the first day but still had a lot to fight for throughout the weekend. A few of the local rivals would face off on the final day. </p> <p><em>As we shared with the 18 recaps, we have been attempting to cover as many teams across the Gateway and Heart of America regions. As weekends have gotten busier, we find it necessary to focus our attention primarily on players in the state of Missouri. There may be an occasional mention of a Kansas player since we will highlight Missouri players on Kansas teams. </em></p> <p><strong>PVA 17 Elite - 9th Place - 5-3 Overall Record</strong></p> <p>Do you remember everything I mentioned above about focusing on Missouri players? Scratch it for a second. I’m going to break that rule to say <strong>Ava Martin</strong> (Creighton) and <strong>Taylor Stockman</strong> are exciting pins to watch. They bring a level of intensity to the court you love in your hitters. PVA went 2-1 on the opening day to stay in the mix for a bid. A tough day 2 and 1-2 record quickly knocked them out of contention. I did watch their final match, a hard-fought three-set win over local rival Dynasty. There were a lot of great plays being made across the court. MB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="102458" first="Alex" last="Dvorak"]</strong> (Park Hill South) was impressive on the slide to score points. At 6-1, she moves well along the front row. She is an above-average blocker and still uncommitted. </p> <p><strong>Dynasty 17 Black - 10th Place - 4-4 Overall Record</strong></p> <p>Like PVA, Dynasty went the same route staying in gold pools after day 1 before going 1-2 on the second day of competition. Both of their silver bracket matches were against local teams, with the first being KC Power. They defeated them in two sets, -22, -18. We discussed the battle versus PVA above, but we want to emphasize it was great volleyball on display. One Missouri player that shined in the couple of matches we watch was setter <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="41799" first="Addison" last="Beagle"]</strong>. The Liberty North Eagle helped lead her team to an undefeated, state championship season this fall. She runs a great offense and is silky smooth. Her speed and ball placement were excellent. As an uncommitted junior, she is surely commanding attention from coaches across the country. Another Missouri player who caught my attention was MB <strong>Kanoelehua Misipeka </strong>(Liberty North). She raised my eyebrows when checking into the game because she went to the middle position and couldn’t be taller than 5-6. She quickly raised my eyebrows even further after her first swing. This girl can get up! She is likely a pin on the next level and can contribute at a Division II program as a hitter with her jumping ability. Oklahoma pledge <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="41818" first="Chloe" last="Kaminski"]</strong> was her typical self defensively, playing six rotations on the weekend. </p> <p><strong>KC Power 17-1 - 11th Place - 3-4 Overall Record</strong></p> <p>Heart of America KC Power kept the trend going with their fellow area programs, 2-1 and 1-2 in the first two days. They had a difficult day 2, which included two teams who would walk away with bids on Sunday. As shared in the Dynasty recap, Power was defeated in the opening match of silver bracket play. This team has a few uncommitted players that had solid weekends. OH <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="41813" first="Sydney" last="Handel"]</strong> (Lee’s Summit West) continues to improve and should be on the radar of some DI programs. She is turning into a consistent 6 rotation player with lots of upside. She has a few shots in her arsenal, as we saw some great placed line shots. Sophomore setter <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="98678" first="Sydney" last="Draper"]</strong> (Pembroke Hill) continues to turn heads playing up an age group. We saw a few well-placed dumps that caught the defense by surprise. We like how far her blocking has come over the last year. You can see her improved strength and hard work come into play in this part of her game.  Her recruitment will be interesting to watch come June 15th. 6-3 MB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="119183" first="Sarah" last="Lattan"]</strong> (Pembroke Hill) has good size and will continue to develop into a prized prospect. She moves well and has a good swing. Her ability to get touches on balls are an asset. RS [player_tooltip player_id="41825" first="Isabel" last="Zimmerman"] (Auburn), one of the top-ranked 2022 players in the state shined throughout the weekend as well. </p> <p><strong>Dynasty Academy 17 - 22nd Place - 4-3 Overall Record</strong></p> <p>We had the opportunity to check this team out a few weeks ago in the MLK Classic in Omaha and thought they would be able to compete on the open level. Even though they walked away 22nd, our opinion doesn’t change as they have the pieces to make it happen.  They don’t have great height and we saw them run into difficulty with the length of MiElite in the match we observed. They were placed in a three-team pool on the first day and went 1-1 but dropped to third on percentages. This 3rd place finish knocked them out of the gold pools after day 1. They repeated the 1-1 record on day 2 but good enough for 2nd. After winning their crossover match, they would finish the last day 1-1. Liberty OH <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="99217" first="Madi" last="Corf"]</strong> continues to shine for Dynasty Academy. The uncommitted pin brings a punch to her swings and continues to add shots to her offensive game. <strong>Abigail Chambers</strong> rotated in as setter in the 6-2 and looked solid. She is a smart player and also shined defensively. </p>