May 2, 2022

The final weekend of qualifier season brought vballrecruiter.com to Far Western in Reno. There was definitely a sense of urgency as teams fought for the last available bids remaining. We walked the courts for three days watching and observing as much action as we could. Here are the top liberos we saw. Elizabeth Bower, ID Crush 15 Bower – ID Crush has produced some strong liberos in recent years and Bower is next line to carry that flag. She’s an eighth-grader playing up. She’s smooth and has the ability to make tough saves look effortless and easy. She’s a name to know! Isabel Junior, NE Elite 15 Matrix – Junior is part of a scrappy group. She did well extending rallies and giving NE Elite extra chances to score. Brooklyn Bowman, Coast 15-1 – Coast is not the biggest team and needs to find ways to make up points where it can. Bowman gives them that chance with her defensive prowess. She can take away kills with her strong digging abilities and keep Coast in the rally. Sydney Raszewski, Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar – Raszewski had a particularly strong Sunday as Beach contending for the 15 Open crown. She was flying around the court making plays and her passing out of serve receive was solid. Allison Cook, NorCal 15-1 Black – Cook is part of a NorCal squad that plays hard and isn’t afraid to compete. She was picking off some hard hit cross court shots and covering well. Ava Lambert, AZ Rev 15 Premier – As a unit, AZ Rev was playing some of the scrappiest defense in the division. Lambert was showcasing her skills by making some big-time digs and was passing fairly solid out of serve receive. Lauren Lynch, SG Elite 16 Rosh – A four-star recruit playing up an age group, we’ve written about Lynch before this season. She continues to impress with her unflappable play, sound passing and ability to erase would-be kills. Meghan Kagehiro, Rage 16 Garren – Kagehiro was a standout for Rage while we were observing! She was covering the court and making digs all over. She was also consistent in serve receive and keeping Rage in system. Elina Wheeler, SF Elite 16 Saga – This was a fun libero to watch. Wheeler definitely brings passion to the position. She’s fiery and really celebrates with her teammates. She’s also active and very talkative. Sarah Galligan, NE Elite 16 Lohaki – Galligan has a calm energy about her and doesn’t seem to get rattled. She wasn’t challenged much in serve receive but when she was she was passing accurately. Jacqueline Smith, OMNI 16 John – There were some big shots coming at Smith and she stood in there and took them! She’s a scrappy one and was running around making nice covers at the net. Michael Torkaman, Vision 16 Gold – Torkaman seems to read the court well and position herself to make play after play. She has a quiet intensity about her and she’s tough to breakdown in serve receive. Annah Legaspi, Momentous 16 Dan – We’ve written about this three-star recruit a couple times prior. She continues to be a defensive stalwart. She’s quick and can cover ground. She’s also very consistent when targeted in serve receive. Kambree Rodriguez, Club V 17 Ren Reed – We caught Rodriguez in action on Day 2 and Day 3. The Utah State commit was on fire Saturday against NE Elite. She could hardly do wrong, from passing dimes to making saves, she was on point! Kaieva Johnson, Club V 17 Ren Matthew – Johnson is another we really enjoyed watching! She is quick. She can track down balls in a hurry and brings lots of energy to the court. Laney Choboy, Academy 17 Diamond – A five-star recruit committed to Minnesota, many coaches consider Choboy the top libero in the Class of 2023. She’s extremely passionate and boisterous with her high-octane motor. She’s certainly not afraid of laying out to make plays and always seems to have one spectacular play she makes out of nowhere. Molly Tuozzo, Hou Skyline 17 Royal – Tuozzo is a three-star recruit committed to Kentucky. She has the capability of making wow saves. She stands in against hard struck balls flying at her cross court and has no issues picking them off. Tehani Ulufatu, Absolute Black 17-1 – A Baylor commit, Ulufatu was – pardon the pun – absolute nails in the back row as the NCVA club secured its Open bid. She was especially effective in serve receive, passing more than half the court in a two-person formation. Mckenzie Schoenhardt, Arizona Storm 17 Thunder – Schoenhardt, who is a three-star recruit, flies under the radar a bit but was a key piece to the puzzle as Storm wrapped up its Open bid. She can make plays where you think the point is over but she’ll keep it going where others wouldn’t be able to.

There was no chance the final day of qualifying season was going to be basic, was there? I mean, we already knew the teams receiving the three bids in 15 Open before play kicked off Sunday. So why couldn’t the bid races in 16 and 17 Open be as cut-and-dry? Because that would be boring and we all know volleyball at this level is not boring! For almost 30 minutes Sunday afternoon, there was tons of suspense and confusion as the final bid was getting sorted out in 16 Open. Hou Skyline 16 Royal already clinched a bid by reaching the final, where Hou Skyline eventually fell to previously-qualified Vision 16 Gold. It capped a perfect 10-0 weekend for Vision. San Gabriel Elite 16 Rosh had earned a spot in the third-place match, also clinching a bid and joining Hou Skyline. However, figuring out who SG was going to play and thus which team was going to receive the last qualifying spot turned into the craziest moments yet of the season at a qualifier. While Hou Skyline won its pool at 3-0, OJVA 16-1 Gold, Absolute Black 16-1 and Rocky 16 National all tied at 1-2. OJVA and Absolute were tied on set percentage. Rocky was below both in set percentage.   Normally, that seems like an easy tiebreaker situation to sort through. Rocky would be eliminated, leaving OJVA and Absolute tied on set percentage. Since OJVA won the head-to-head contest, OJVA would take second in the pool and with it the last bid. But it was not normal times! Not with a bid in the balance. OJVA began warming up, believing it had the spot in the third-place match against SG, which was also warming up. Meanwhile, Absolute players were sitting around on the court and the benches while their coaches were meeting with the tournament directors at the tournament desk. Personally, I thought it was clear that OJVA would be playing SG for third place. So did other coaches who had gathered around and were sharing their opinions. But that’s not how the tiebreaker rules go when a bid is on the line. This from the USAV manual: If a team would be eliminated from advancing to the Gold at BJNC/GJNCs or earning a Bid to BJNC/GJNCs, the remaining teams that are tied in match percentage and set percentage have Playoff Tie Breaker Set(s) played as defined in step 3. Step 3 states: If there is 1 pool position available for a team to advance to play for a bid position, all teams participate in the Tie Breaker Sets. The sequence of play offsets is structured so that the teams with the highest point percentages have the fewest number of Tie Breaker Sets to play. That was the news the Absolute coaches delivered upon returning to the court. Set percentage, point ratios, none of that mattered in this case because a bid was in the balance, so the only way to settle it was through one-game playoffs! I feel like free popcorn should have been handed out for all involved. Because no one could write a script for something like this. Of course, the Absolute players were ecstatic to learn they still had a shot at qualifying. Rocky National was essentially getting ready to head to the airport believing its tournament was over and so of course Rocky National was pumped up to still be in it as well. Then there was OJVA, which was a bit deflated thinking it already had a bid but now had to win two, one-game playoffs to 15. It wasn’t enough to deter OJVA though. Up first was Rocky National, which beat OJVA in pool play. OJVA survived the first playoff, 15-12, to set up a showdown with Absolute. That meant one game to 15 for the last bid. If you are a fan of drama, it doesn’t get any more dramatic than that! OJVA, which swept Absolute, 25-23, 25-23, in a close result in pool play, jumped out to a 6-0 lead. It shrank to 9-6 at one point, but OJVA went on a 6-3 run from there to win 15-9 and earn its bid. SG had been sitting around waiting for all this to play out. It finally had an opponent and went on to sweep OJVA, 25-14, 25-12, to finish in third. What a day! While the one-game playoffs were being played in 16 Open, the final bid in 17 Open remained up in the air. That was to be settled in a fifth-place meeting between Absolute Black 17-1 and NorCal 17-1 Black scheduled for 4pm. Club V 17 Ren Reed defeated Hou Skyline 17 Royal for the 17 Open crown. Both were already qualified. SynergyForce 17 Jeff and Arizona Storm Elite 17 Thunder earned the first two bids by virtue of making the third-place match. That left the final bid between Absolute and NorCal. It went down to the wire – of course! – with Absolute escaping in three, 23-25, 25-15, 15-13, to close out the bid race in exciting fashion. The bid chases in 16 and 17 Open were so unbelievable and entertaining, it overshadowed one of the biggest surprises of the qualifier season when AZ Rev 15 Premier beat Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar to capture the 15 Open championship. It was an amazing run for AZ Rev, which already knew it had its bid by virtue of making the top six heading into Sunday’s action. NorCal 15-1 Black and NE Elite 15 Matrix were in the top six as well and had prior bids along with Long Beach so it took the drama of qualifying out of the picture on Day 3. NorCal defeated NE Elite in the third-place match. Coast 15-1 and ID Crush 15 Bower tied for fifth but went home with bids. We’ll have more on each division’s champion and bid winners in the next couple of days, as well as our top players list from the weekend.