April 22, 2022

The third edition of the Northeast Qualifier takes place this coming weekend in Philadelphia. Below, we preview and predict the 15 and 16 Open divisions. 16 OPEN Number of Teams: 41 Number of Bids: 3 Teams With Bids (8): Circle City 16 Purple; NKYVC 16-1 Tsunami; Metro 16 Travel; Triangle 16 Black; TAV 16 Black; Co Jrs 16 Sherri; Rockwood Thunder 16 Elite; AJV 16 Adidas Outlook: This has the making of being an incredible qualifier. First off, it features four clubs who have already won qualifiers. Circle City finished first at Show Me. Triangle took the top honors at Big South. TAV bested the field at Lone Star. And Co Jrs is in its first action since claiming the title at Salt Lake in early March. They are four of the eight qualified teams in the field so there is no guarantee that any bids go out in Philly. Of course, that would mean all the qualified teams finishing in the top eight. We’ll definitely have to wait until Day 3 to see how the bids shape up. Since there are four, three-team gold pools, bids won’t be known on Day 2 like there were in some divisions at Big South and Lone Star this past weekend. It’s going to take a big-time effort from someone without a bid to qualify here. MAVS KC 16-1 and HJV 16 Elite are two of the top candidates. They share the same Day 1 pool, which features five teams. The Puerto Rican team Vaqueras 16-1 could be one to watch, assuming it would accept its bid if in a position to. Prediction: The pick to win it all is NKYVC, which tops TAV in the final. As for the bids, we are picking just two going out to MAVS and HJV. *** 15 OPEN Number of Teams: 31 Number of Bids: 3 Teams With Bids (5): TAV 15 Black; AJV 15 Adidas; GP 15 Rox; HPSTL 15 Royal; Northern Lights 15-1 Outlook: With five qualified teams in the field, we know all three bids are going to go out. With the format having two, four-team gold pools it could be possible to know the bid winners before gold pool starts if all five qualified teams get that far. Some seeding to pay attention involves qualified GP and HPSTL. GP is seeded No. 5 overall but finished tied for ninth at Big South. Meanwhile, HPSTL is seeded No. 10 overall as the No. 2 team in Pool 7 behind Triangle 15 Black, the No. 7 overall seed. HPSTL finished runner up at Big South last weekend while Triangle didn’t make the gold pools. HPSTL is playing its third consecutive weekend at a qualifier. HPSTL earned its bid at Show Me before taking second at Big South. TAV – which tied for fifth with AJV last weekend at Lone Star – is the No. 1 seed. Surfside PV 15 Legends is the No. 2 team. It’s only the second qualifier of the year for Surfside, which failed to make the gold pools at PNQ. There’s a handful of strong candidates who could qualify in Philly. Surfside is certainly one of them. So is MAVS KC 15-1. Others to pay attention to include Triangle, Metro 15 Travel, Rockwood Thunder 15 Elite and Boiler Jrs 15 Gold. Boiler is looking to bounce back after a tough showing at Show Me where it didn’t make it past Day 1. But Boiler did make the gold pools at MEQ. Prediction: The pick is for AJV to win it all, beating Surfside in the final. Surfside qualifies, along with MAVS and Rockwood Thunder.  

Week That Was April 21 2022 It was the busiest qualifier time of the year this past weekend. While Big South was happening in Atlanta, Windy City in Chicago and Lone Star in Dallas were also taking place. vballrecruiter.com was on hand at Big South so here’s a quick rundown of what took place at the other two events. LONE STAR Drive Nation 17 Red wrapped up its first qualifier victory by going 10-0 and winning 17 Open. Hou Skyline 17 Royal – which finished runner up to Drive Nation – KC Power 17-1 and Club V 17 Ren Matthew played their way to bids. All three knew they had bids before starting gold pool play because there were five teams in the top eight with bids already in Drive Nation, Club V 17 Ren Reed, Madfrog 17 Green, AJV 17 Adidas and TAV 17 Black. As for Hou Skyline, it had a chance at bidding last month at NEQ but fell in the third-place match to OT 17 John and missed out by one spot. At Lone Star, it lost its final gold pool match to KC Power but still made the final against Drive Nation. KC Power finished tied for fifth at MEQ last month in its first qualifying effort but surprisingly didn’t make the gold pools at Show Me. It only lost two matches at Lone Star. One came to Club V Reed on Day 1. The other was to Madfrog on Day 3. Meanwhile, Club V Matthew was the shocker of the weekend. It’s the 2s team for the 17s and finished fairly far out of the running at both the Salt Lake City Showdown (18th) and the Red Rock Rave (17th) in prior qualifying opportunity. Yet, Club V broke through in a big way in Dallas. It beat previously-qualified Skyline 17 Royal on Day 1. On Day 2, Club V Matthew downed OMNI 17 Rick and Flyers 17 APX in pool play to make gold and qualify. TAV 16 Black dropped a tight three-setter to Alamo 16 Premier on Day 2 but rebounded to win its final four contests, including topping AJV 16 Adidas in the 16 Open championship match. TAV had only played one previous qualifier, coming in seventh at Northern Lights in April. Runner up AJV qualified at PNQ and helped create trickle down to fifth place. Skyline 16 Royal, which took third, and Alamo, which tied for fifth, joined TAV in qualifying. Previously-qualified teams in Drive Nation 16 Red (4th) and Madfrog 16 Green (t-5th) were also part of the trickle down effect that gave TAV, Alamo and Skyline bids before gold pools began. Skyline had a strong Day 2 in beating Excel 16 National Red, Flyers 16 APX and Drive Nation to reach the gold pools. There, it split matches with TAV and Madfrog before downing Drive Nation once more in the third-place meeting. Alamo avoided elimination on Day 1 with a timely victory over previously-qualified Vision 16 Gold, which was knocked out with the loss. Alamo then took down Tejas 16 Black, TAV and Madfrog on Day 2 to reach gold. Skyline 15 Royal turned in a remarkable run in winning 15 Open and gaining its bid. Skyline missed gold pools at both MEQ and Show Me previously but only dropped one match at Lone Star. It came against previously-qualified Hou Skyline 15 Royal on Day 2. Skyline beat previously-qualified Austin Skyline 15 Royal in the final. Hou Skyline finished in third, beating Excel National 15 Red in the third-place match. Excel qualified with its showing. Excel lost to Skyline in gold play but beat ARVC 15 Adidas and AJV 15 Adidas to take second place in the pool. AJV 15 Adidas tied for fifth with TAV 15 Black – which already was qualified – to secure its bid. AJV won its first seven matches of the weekend before dropping its last two to Skyline and Excel. STANDOUT PLAYERS We had some eyes on the ground at Lone Star who shared a handful of players who stood out. Here they are: Delaney Kemp, S Arete 16 – Kemp is feisty and passionate on the court. She’s always able to get her hands on the ball. She also exhibits being a great team leader by pumping people up. Bethanie Wu, S, TAV 16 Black – One way to describe Wu, who is a three-star recruit, is she’s silent but can be deadly. She brings a calmness to the court. On top of that, she always delivers a great set. Tay Garcia, L, United 16 – One thing Garcia brings to the table is great energy. She displays a wide range of coverage when it comes to picking up attacks. Addison Carrillo, DS, SA Force 17 – Carrillo is small but mighty. She played middle back very well. She also showed good energy. Natalie Adams, S/RS, SA Force 17 – Adams is a fierce competitor. She does a great job of delivering the ball when setting and swinging hard when attacking. Valeria Velez, OH/DS, Tejas 16 – Velez proved to be a solid six-rotation kid who has great leadership presence on the court. Her ball control is very solid and she can also put away a ball. WINDY CITY 1st Alliance 17 Gold earned its second qualifier victory of the season after beating Circle City 17 Purple in the final. 1st Alliance qualified back in January by winning Northern Lights. With 1st Alliance, Circle City and Legacy 17-1 Adidas finishing in the top four, trickle down extended to sixth place for the bids. Two clubs in HJV 17 Elite and Sunshine 17 LA had been knocking on the door at their two previous qualifiers and both were finally able to earn one in Chicago. The other bid recipient was a surprise in UPVBC 17 Open. UPVBC finished 13th at Northern Lights back in January and 17th at Show Me before busting through at Windy City with a fifth-place showing. UPVBC picked