May 25, 2022

With qualifying season over the schedule now turns to gearing up for the USAV and AAU national championships. Among the events aimed at helping that cause is the JVA West Coast Cup over Memorial Day weekend in Long Beach. Below, we take a look at 14-17 Open and offer our thoughts and predictions on the three-day event. 17 OPEN Number of Teams: 40 Teams With Open Bids (7): Drive Nation 17 Red Wave 17 Juliana Club V 17 Ren Reed Coast 17-1 Tstreet 17 Naseri Sunshine 17 LA Absolute Black 17-1 vballrecruiter.com Nationally-Ranked Clubs (9): No. 4 Coast 17-1 No. 5 Drive Nation 17 Red No. 6 Wave 17 Juliana No. 8 Club V 17 Ren Reed No. 20 Sunshine 17 LA No. 26 Tstreet 17 Naseri No. 40 Arizona Storm 17 Thunder No. 42 Absolute Black 17-1 No. 45 Legacy Girls 17 Pyramid Outlook: The field is a strong one, featuring four teams ranked in vballrecruiter.com’s Top 10. Most of them are familiar with each other. Coast 17-1 and Wave 17 Juliana have met four times this season. Coast and Club V 17 Ren Reed are 1-1 against each other so far. Wave is 1-1 against Club V. As for Drive Nation 17 Red, it is 0-2 against Coast and 1-0 versus Club V. Drive Nation and Wave have not played to date. They are among seven teams in the field qualified for 17 Open in Indy. The seeding is close to our rankings with one big exception. Legacy 17 Girls Pyramid opens as the No. 2 seed behind top-seeded Drive Nation. Wave follows at No. 3, with No. 4 Club V, No. 5 Coast, No. 6 Tstreet 17 Naseri and No. 7 Sunshine 18 LA and No. 8 Absolute Black 17-1 following. Legacy went 1-1 against Club V at the Red Rock Rave. Legacy actually qualified for Open in Las Vegas but declined the bid. Legacy has also defeated Coast and Tstreet this year, so it’s certainly capable of playing with the top teams. Among some other out-of-area clubs making the trek are Arizona Storm 17 Thunder, Rage 17 Greg, Co Jrs 17 Kevin, Vision 17 Gold, K2 17 Adidas, OT 17 Felix, VA Elite 17s and OMNI 17 Rick. AZ Storm is another team that qualified for Open too, but used an ineligible player at Far Western in doing so and had to forfeit its bid. Storm starts off as the No. 11 seed. With only pride at stake and no concerns of qualifying, it’ll be interesting to see how each team treats this tournament. Which ones are going for it all as opposed to perhaps playing a variety of lineups? The final day also features a different format from qualifying season, as there are no pools on Day 3. Rather, it’s a modified 10-team bracket. With a strong field, it’s going to make for terrific conclusion to the event. The question is can someone other than Drive Nation, Coast, Wave or Club V finish on top? All four have won qualifiers this season. Drive Nation captured Lone Star. Coast took first at Red Rock. Wave finished on top at Big South and Club V was the best in Salt Lake City and Reno. Prediction: Since Drive Nation and Wave haven’t played this season, that’s one match we would really like to see take place. Why not in the final? Therefore, the pick is Drive Nation over Wave for gold. *** 16 OPEN Number of Teams: 36 Teams With Open Bids (11): Wave 16 Brennan Co Jrs 16 Sherri Vision 16 Gold OT 16 Roberto Coast 16-1 AZ Storm 16 Thunder SG Elite 16 Rosh Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar Seal Beach 16 Black Drive Nation 16 Red Surfside 15 PV Legends* *Has 15 Open Bid vballrecruiter.com Nationally-Ranked Clubs (14): No. 4 Co Jrs 16 Sherri No. 5 Wave 16 Brennan No. 15 Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar No. 16 Coast 16-1 No. 17 Arizona Storm 16 Thunder No. 19 Vision 16 Gold No. 23 SG Elite 16 Rosh No. 24 OT 16 Roberto No. 26 Drive Nation 16 Red No. 33 Momentous 16 Dan No. 36 Absolute Black 16-1 No. 38 Seal Beach 16 Black No. 39 SCVC 16 Roxy No. 10 Surfside 15 PV Legends* *15s National Ranking Outlook: The 16s don’t have as many top-ranked teams as the 17s, but it’s a deeper division overall with 13 teams ranked in our Top 50. Of them, 10 hold Open bids, plus Surfside 15 PV Legends is playing up and also owns an Open bid. While Day 1 might be a little slow like most events, Days 2 and 3 should be very competitive. Wave 16 Brennan starts off as the top seed. Co Jrs 16 Sherri, which owns a victory over Wave this year, is No. 2. After that it is No. 3 Vision 16 Gold, No. 4 OT 16 Roberto, No. 5 K2 16 Adidas, No. 6 Coast 16-1, No. 7 Arizona Storm 16 Thunder and No. 8 SG Elite 16 Rosh. It’s the toughest tournament to date for K2, which is going to have its hands full at No. 5. Other teams that are going to factor into the mix are Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar, Momentous 16 Dan and Drive Nation 16 Red. Like 17 Open, four teams in 16s have won qualifiers. Wave was tops at Red Rock. Vision won recently at Far Western. Long Beach was the best at PNQ, while Co Jrs beat the field in Salt Lake City. One of the main things to watch for is Wave and Co Jrs have proven themselves the most and could be on a collision course in the final. That is, unless someone else can spring an upset or two and shake it up? Prediction: It’s really hard to pick against a Wave-Co Jrs final. As nice as it would be to predict something different happening, the call is Wave beating Co Jrs for the title. *** 15 OPEN Number