May 30, 2022

After a slow Day 1 at the JVA West Coast Cup, Day 2 action in Long Beach was anything but! Three top-ranked teams suffered upsets. It set the stage for a wild finish come Day 3. Before getting into the top headlines from Sunday’s play, we first want to highlight our Top 10 Show Stoppers from Day 2. These are the players who stood out to us and they’ll be included in our extensive post-tournament Show Stopper list as well. In case you missed the Day 1 Show Stoppers you can find that here. vballrecruiter.com DAY 2 SHOW STOPPERS Fatimah Hall, S/RS, Mizuno Long Beach 17 Rockstar – This three-star recruit and San Diego State commit is an athletic setter who delivers with great tempo. Mixing her athleticism and deception makes her valuable when passes are not in system. Olivia Babcock, RS, Sunshine 17 LA – A five-star recruit committed to Pitt, Babcock commands attention. She’s 6-2 with a quick arm swing to hit any set. She also possesses excellent footwork and timing as a blocker that would give any outside hitter fits. Reese Robins, MB, Drive Nation 17 Red – This five-star recruit and Louisville commit controls the net. She closes her blocks and presses her hands over the net consistently. She also gets in transition and her setter loves to find her for easy kills. Tessa Larkin, OH, Arizona Storm 13 Thunder – With Storm playing up in 14 Open, it allowed Larkin to display her skill set. She’s dynamic and gets off the floor to attack with such ease she makes defending her a tough task. She’s a major weapon from the back row as she hits the bic effectively. Finley Krystkowiak, OH, Wave 14 Brennan – At 6-2, Krystokowiak is the volleyball unicorn. Her height and athleticism makes her play at the net impressive. Yet her passing touch in serve-receive and defense makes her a six-rotation stud. Presley Johnson, OH, Tstreet 14 Carson – Watching this 5-6 outside continually score versus a double block can be attributed to not only her court vision but also her willingness to tool a block. She’s also solid in serve receive and defends the whole court in the backrow. Westley Matavao, OH, Forza North 14UA – Matavao is a solid six-rotation hitter who does everything at such a high level. Her ability to snap on the ball at a high contact point allows her to hit any shot. It makes her a big asset out of the back row too with her jump serve and pipe attack. Mae Kordas, OH, Wave 15 Scott – Kordas was helping power the offense along with her various shots. Using her height to her advantage, she was going over blocks deep to the cross-court corner. Or she was going high hands and tooling blocks regularly. Izzy Romero, RS, Vision 15 Gold – Defenses were having trouble slowing down Romero, who was a key part of the attack for Vision on Day 2. She was scoring from the left and right side, using her power and aggression to consistently beat defenders. *** It was not a good day to be a fourth-ranked team in our national rankings! Co Jrs 16 Sherri and Dynasty 15 Black – each ranked No. 4 in the nation in their respective age divisions – both failed to advance out of Day 2 pools and will miss out on Monday’s gold bracket play. Dynasty fell to No. 23 Wave 15 Scott and No. 14 Coast 15-1 in Pool 2 to finish 1-2 and in third place. Coast won the pool at 3-0 with Wave taking second at 2-1. It was a stunning development to say the least! I mean, who could have predicted it? Dynasty hasn’t finished lower than fifth place in any national tournament this season. It took fifth at Triple Crown; second at both Windy City and Show Me; and first at MEQ. It was equally shocking to see Co Jrs not make the gold bracket in 16 Open. Co Jrs has a first-place showing in Salt Lake City and also grabbed second at NEQ. However, it was No. 26 Drive Nation 16 Red and No. 33 Momentous 16 Dan – which didn’t make Open this year – upsetting Co Jrs in Pool 2. Momentous also topped Drive Nation to finish 3-0. Drive Nation went 2-1 as both advanced. Now wait for this. While Co Jrs and Dynasty not advancing were big deals in how much they impact the overall tournament, neither of them suffered the biggest upset Sunday! That’s how incredible Day 2 was in Long Beach. The most unpredictable result of the season so far was unranked Seal Beach 15 Black sweeping national No. 1 Arizona Storm 15 Thunder in Pool 1 in 15 Open. If anybody said they saw this coming they are lying!! Storm’s loss to Seal Beach was only its third this season against teams in its own age division. Dynasty took down Storm at Triple Crown while Aspire 15 Premier beat Storm during regional action. So this was only the second time Storm lost all season on a national stage. How crazy is that? Here’s the kicker though. Storm still won its pool and enters Monday’s gold bracket as the top seed despite the wild dramatics. That’s because Storm finished in a two-way tie at 2-1 with No. 46 OT 15 Meg and took first based on their head-to-head result. Of the nationally-ranked teams in 15 Open, No. 20 Tstreet 15 Curtis joins Dynasty in missing the eight-team gold bracket. Tstreet fell to both No. 11 Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar and No. 15 Absolute Black 15-1. The other ranked team in the final eight not mentioned yet is No. 21 Drive Nation 15 Red. With 14 nationally-ranked teams in 16 Open and only 10 spots in Monday’s gold bracket, some were guaranteed to miss the cut. Joining Co Jrs in missing out are No. 17 Arizona Storm 16 Thunder, No. 23 SG