Nebraska Elite 16-1 Excels at Colorado Juniors Challenge

<p>What a way to usher in the 2022 club season!</p> <p>We’ve got a lot of volleyball to cover from a lot of different places. From Kansas City to Colorado, Nebraska’s club teams looked to leave their mark around the Great Plains this weekend as big tournaments began to ramp up. Expect a lot of coverage in the days ahead.</p> <p>Let’s start out west, where Nebraska Elite 16-1 traveled to take on some top club programs from Colorado and beyond. The Colorado Juniors Challenge provided some great competition for 16-1 to hone its skills, and the end result was a handful of wins to start the 2022 season.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Pool Play</strong></p> <p>The opening day of pool play is where Nebraska Elite 16-1 really made a statement. It all started with a matchup against Club V 16-2, where Elite promptly posted a 2-0 win to start off the event. Carly Ries put down some massive swings from the left pin in this one, and she connected really well with setter [player_tooltip player_id="168154" first="Molly" last="Romano"]. The block heated up, too, as the combination of Ries and [player_tooltip player_id="168167" first="Alizabeth" last="Jacobsen"] stuffed match point to give 16-1 the win.</p> <p>The DIFF 16 was the next opponent in line, and the result was the same. Stingy defense was a key once again as 16-1 pushed their overall record to 2-0. Sarah Galligan locked down the libero position with such skill and poise. Better yet, she dialed up some massive serving runs that helped Elite forge big leads.</p> [caption id="attachment_110153" align="alignright" width="463"]<img class=" wp-image-110153" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pd/uploads/2020/09/Nora-Wurtz-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="463" height="304" /> Wurtz (Photo submitted by coach Bob Wald)[/caption] <p>Opening day concluded with another win for 16-1, this time over Colorado Juniors 16 Elsa. Nebraska Elite surged out to another 2-0 victory behind their quick offense and stifling wall at the net. [player_tooltip player_id="104975" first="Nora" last="Wurtz"] did nice work on the right pin and also ran some lethal gap plays from the middle. She can do it all. Her DC West teammate, [player_tooltip player_id="104976" first="Anna" last="Borner"], continues to impress on the defensive end. In all, this culminated in a Pool B title for Elite 16-1.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Regrouping</strong></p> <p>Sunday marked the second half of the Colorado competition as the teams were re-pooled based on Saturday’s results. Naturally, 16-1 would face some great squads after sweeping through their initial pool.</p> <p>The day started with what can already go down as one of the wildest matches of the entire club season. Nebraska Elite faced an early one-set deficit against The DIFF 17, a high-flying squad featuring Andi Jackson, a future Nebraska Cornhusker. Elite would not be deterred, though, and tied things up after an emphatic 25-14 win in the second.</p> <p>Cue the tiebreaker marathon. Reminder: these things still go to 15. Elite and The DIFF were tied at 10 in the third and proceeded to match each other every step of the way. Each team’s score pushed past 15 and soon inflated into the 20s as neither side could pull ahead by two. Eventually, The DIFF held serve on match point and escaped with victory after a 31-29 (!!) result in the tiebreaker "race to 15." If we could still declare ties in volleyball, it might have been appropriate here.</p> <p>After this mind-numbing, exhausting battle, it was nice to see 16-1 bounce back and claim victory in their next match against Elev 16 Peak. [player_tooltip player_id="124771" first="Addison" last="Johnson"] put her six-rotation savvy on display in this one, and Emily Love made some big strides in the middle.</p> <p>Though Colorado Juniors 16 Sherri got the better of Elite in the event’s final match, it did little to take away from the serious potential that 16-1 showed. This experience will undoubtedly pay dividends as the team crosses back into Nebraska for another upcoming slate of matches.</p>