Northern Lights, Nebraska Clubs Take on Colorado Crossroads

<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Teams from across the country will be heading to Denver to take on Colorado Crossroads, where plenty of teams will be looking to punch an early ticket to USAV Nationals where the 18s are running out of time before their qualifiers finish up later this month.  Here is a quick glance at a few teams out of Nebraska as well as Northern Lights out of the Minneapolis area who will look to make a major impact in the Mile High City! </span></p> <p><strong>Northern Lights</strong></p> [caption id="attachment_83879" align="alignright" width="402"] [player_tooltip player_id="31583" first="Sienna" last="Ifill"] with the block for NL 16-1[/caption] <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The 17-1 squad from Northern Lights came into the Northern Lights with big expectations and delivered by winning the 17 Open tournament.  Kennidi Orr, a Nebraska commit and one of the top setters in the country leads the way along with a pair of SEC commits in <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="58016" first="Erin" last="Lamb"] (Kentucky) and [player_tooltip player_id="71941" first="Ava" last="Moes"] (Tennessee). </strong> Libero, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="10110" first="Emma" last="Torstenson"]</strong> will be playing in her future home state being a Colorado commit. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The 16-1 team came up through the Challenge Pools at Triple Crown before a loss to Madfrog and Michigan Elite 16 Mizuno.  [player_tooltip player_id="31577" first="Julia" last="Hanson"] is an outside hitter committed to Minnesota, but other top prospects include middle [player_tooltip player_id="31585" first="Kendal" last="Kemp"], right side [player_tooltip player_id="31583" first="Sienna" last="Ifill"], and libero [player_tooltip player_id="72760" first="Simara" last="Amador"].  Lights will be the top seed in pool nine where Arizona Storm 16 Thunder will be a top seed after finishing second at Triple Crown. </span></p> <p><strong>A Quick Look At Top Nebraska Squads</strong></p> <p><strong>18s</strong></p> [caption id="attachment_85555" align="alignright" width="371"] VCN 18 Elite[/caption] <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Premier 18 Gold and VCN 18 Elite have locked up bids for Reno from the Region with Premier with a bid to the National Division and VCN having qualified for American.  They will be competing in the Open Division. Premier is the 6th overall seed, the top seed in their pool. VCN is the second seed in Pool 8 and Nebraska Juniors 18 Black will be the third seed in Pool 2 with Front Range out of Colorado and Idaho Crush ahead of them.  There are no teams in the field who have qualified for 18 Open so no trickle down effect with happen. </span></p> <p><strong>17s </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Nebraska teams are coming in hot with Premier 17 Gold and Nebraska Elite 17 Apex are two of the top four seeds in the field with Premier being the top seed overall.  With the likes of <strong>Lindsay Krause (Nebraska), Phyona Schrader (Notre Dame), and Norah Sis (Creighton)</strong> leading the way. Allison Gray (Arizona State) and <strong>Rylee Gray (Nebraska)</strong> will look to get Elite back to an Open bid.  Nebraska Juniors 17 Black could be a dark horse behind a squad of athletes led by one of the top setters in the state in [player_tooltip player_id="37529" first="Ava" last="LeGrand"], they are a three seed in pool nine where VCN 17 Elite is a three seed in pool five. </span></p> <p><strong>16s</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">This is the first chance for 16s to punch a ticket to nationals and Crossroads always has some of the top teams from around the country, especially out of the West Coast who are looking for an early bid.  Nebraska Premier 16 Gold is the fourth overall seed behind Arizona Storm, Long Beach, and Dynasty (Kansas City). Premier is accustomed to the big stage where last year this group took home the title of 15 Open, defeating Dynasty in the championship.  VCN will be the three seed in pool eight.  </span></p>