June 19, 2022

AAU 14s Day 4 2022 The 18s and 14s divisions wrapped up play at AAUs in Orlando. It was podium day as teams competed in the gold bracket in hopes of medaling and reaching it. vballrecruiter.com was on hand taking it all in and scribbling notes on which players were standing out the most. Below, we present our Day 4 Show Stoppers. Sofia Guerrero-Wilson, MB, A5 Mizuno 14 Helen – A 6-1 middle with amazing upside and potential, Guerrero-Wilson can rip it when it’s lined up for her. She was also winning 50-50 balls at the net with her size and scoring that way too. Kalyssa Taggart, S/RS, A5 Mizuno 14 Helen – Taggart is a valuable piece to the puzzle, as she can run a 5-1 or set in the back and hit across the front as she was doing for most of the tournament. She has a great touch as a setter and doesn’t miss her spots too often. Ruby McDermott, L, A5 Mizuno 14 Helen – McDermott is the type of player the more you see of her the more you appreciate what she does. She holds down the back row well and shows plenty of range when it comes to keeping plays alive. Emily Keiran, L, Adidas KiVA 14 Red – Like many of the players featured on Day 4, we’ve written about Keiran before during the tournament. She again displayed her back row prowess and ability to chase down balls and anchor serve receive. Rayna Christianson, S/RS, Northern Lights 14-1 –A 6-2 high-level prospect, Christianson is part of the backbone of Northern Lights. She does a lot setting and hitting. When she’s front row, she’s a featured part of the attack and for good reason. With her length, smaller blockers have virtually no chance of slowing her down. Madeline Kraft, L, Northern Lights 14-1 – Attackers need to bring real heat if they are going to score on Kraft going cross court when she’s at left back. Anything short of that and she’ll get it up. She also showed her willingness to hit the floor to extend rallies. Romi Chlebecek, OH, Northern Lights 14-1 – A bit undersized on the left, Chlebecek is a gamer and a smart hitter. If it’s there, she’ll go for it but if it’s not she doesn’t overdo things and looks to keep the ball in play and not make an error. Kaleigh Langmo, OH, Top Select 14 Elite – Langmo brings physicality to the attack. She takes strong cuts and hits a heavy ball that can be tough on defenders to get up. Isabella Johnson, RS, Top Select 14 Elite – Another strong hitter for Top Select to utilize, Johnson put down a few powerful hits. She was also able to block a few balls for points as well. Caroline Vargas, MB, Top Select 14 Elite – Vargas is a capable scorer and somebody Top Select will go to when the pass allows. She also makes a mark blocking, getting in the way and helping to slow down attacks. Catherine Palmi, OH, GP 14 Rox – Palmi powers GP along, literally. She’s a strong hitter and server who uses her strength and jumping ability to her advantage. She can absolutely unload on shots to all parts of the court. Madison Wehr, S, GP 14 Rox – Wehr is on the stoic and unassuming side and doesn’t get too high or low. She’s a steady setter who puts up a clean ball in good locations for her hitters to score. Jenness Orcutt, RS, GP 14 Rox – Orcutt might be the tallest member of GP and it’s her height that helps her score consistently on the right side. She swings with nice extension and can go over smaller blocks regularly. Lexi Shondell, S, Boiler Jrs 14 Gold – Que the broken record, like we said on Day 3 we could write about Shondell every time she plays. She has great leadership skills and is in total control of running the offense. Reese Resmer, MB, Boiler Jrs 14 Gold – We’ve yet to see a team stop or slow Resmer down with any consistency. The best hope is getting Boiler Jrs out of system, because if Shondell can run the full offense Resmer is going to make her presence known over and over. Arielle Hepler, L, Boiler Jrs 14 Gold – Hepler is one of those players who you see smiling a lot. She’s a steady passer and defender and is always uplifting her teammates. Caroline Ward, RS, Boiler Jrs 14 Gold – The way Ward has it going already, she’s a future Top 10 recruit. She’s 6-0 and only a seventh grader. She’s long with a whippy swing that can generate serious heat be it down the line or cross court. Cali Foster, OH, Boiler Jrs 14 Gold – One of the best all-around players in the age group, Foster is fun to watch because of her smoothness. She’s a really smart hitter who can tool blocks, go through them or around them. She’s also a back row treasure with her defending and passing skills. Bre Morgan, MB, Boiler Jrs 14 Gold – Another point scorer out of the middle for Boiler Jrs, Morgan can get up and put it down. Madison Miles, OH, Boiler Jrs 14 Gold – There’s a reason it comes from everywhere with Boiler Jrs. Miles is a point-scoring machine on the outside with her fluid swing and ability to generate plenty of pace with it. Kayla Nwabueze, MB, Legacy 14-1 Adidas – As we keep saying, this is a name you’ll get to know well in the coming years. At 6-0, Nwabueze has nice size and can hit from anywhere across the front row with great extension and power. Meredith Martin, L, Legacy 14-1 Adidas – A sound libero, Martin doesn’t make many errors. She’s sturdy in serve receive and is capable of making some big-time saves. Marlie Smith, S/OH, Legacy 14-1 Adidas –

Road signs are accurate. Volleyball ones can be misleading. Just because all the signs were pointing to a showdown between top-seeded Boiler Jrs 14 Gold and No. 2 Game Point 14 Rox in the 14 Open division at AAUs in Orlando, it hardly meant that was the championship match that was going to happen. Yet, the two highest-ranked clubs in our National Rankings – Boilers Jrs at No. 8 and GP at No. 11 – squared off for the gold medal Saturday afternoon at the ESPN Zone. On paper, it was the perfect final. On the court, Boiler Jrs was nearly perfect. The Indiana club turned in a no-doubt performance in sweeping GP, 25-18, 25-14, and claiming the gold medal. The sides had been on a collision course since the tournament started four days ago. In some regard, it was a case of who would blink first. Neither lost a set through the first two days. Game Point remained flawless after Day 3, when Boiler Jrs finally flinched and gave up a set in a three-game victory over Tribe 14 Elite. That was as close to losing as Boiler Jrs faced in Orlando, winning the third set 15-13. Perhaps that meant Boiler Jrs was vulnerable entering the gold bracket. Then again, perhaps the Florida humidity won’t be here when we gather in Orlando next summer. Opponents could only dream, as can we. Boiler Jrs’ finishing touch was on display, coming out firing against Northern Lights 14-1 in the quarterfinals and sweeping, 25-19, 25-7. The match was actually close midway through the first set. Coming off three days of PM pools before the schedule switched to AM matches, Boiler Jrs woke up, found its rhythm and just like that was onto the semifinals. A5 Mizuno 14 Helen offered more resistance, but not enough to push to force a third after Boiler Jrs pulled out a close second set and finished its sweep, 25-18, 25-22. Game Point, on the other hand, was tested out of the gate Saturday in its quarterfinal. Outside hitter Jordin Southall went down in the second set with an ankle injury and spent the rest of the match on the sidelines with ice on it. That seemed to rattle GP at first before the Florida club settled down, regrouped and pulled out the victory over Top Select 14 Elite in three games, 25-18, 16-25, 15-10. With Southall back in the lineup for the semis, GP was back to its usual self. Legacy 14-1 Adidas was taken care of quickly as GP swept, 25-13, 25-14, to set up the showdown with Boiler Jrs. The teams are similar in that both have strong outsides. For GP, it’s Southall and Catherine Palmi. For Boiler Jrs, it’s Cali Foster and Madison Miles. Both also have reliable options on the right in Jenness Orcutt (GP) and Caroline Ward (Boiler Jrs). The setting positions are ones of strengths with Lexi Shondell (Boiler Jrs) and Madison Wehr (GP). Where Boiler Jrs had the edge was in the middle with Reese Resmer and Bre Morgan, as well as at libero with Elle Hepler. It’s the strength of Boiler Jrs in that there isn’t a clear weakness anywhere. The team passes and defends and doesn’t have a rotation it gets stuck in because of the offensive firepower it can keep throwing at opponents. Game Point found that out first hand in the final. Boiler Jrs finished the four days going 11-0 overall and 22-1 in sets. It posted an impressive 1.5134 points ratio and now turns its sights on another national championship in its home state. The seedings for 14 Open at the USAV GJNC weren’t released as of Saturday. Regardless, Boiler Jrs will head to Indy as one of the favorites. Game Point is also part of that tournament as well. With a much deeper field there, the winner of that event will most assuredly take the No. 1 spot in our final 14s National Rankings. *** Before getting to what happened in 14 Premier, here are some final thoughts on 14 Open. Here’s the point where we can say our National Rankings held up well. We already mentioned that the two top-ranked teams met in the final. Boiler Jrs was the only team from our Top 10 in the field. The two bronze medalists in A5 and Legacy were among the top five teams from our rankings, coming in at No. 24 and No. 30 respectively. Dynasty 14 Black, at No. 19, was the highest-ranked team to miss the gold bracket. Top Select, at No. 34, No. 39 WPVC 14 Armour Black, and unranked Northern Lights and Mauloa 14 Green all made the quarterfinals. Rev 14-1 Fuego, at No. 31, was the next-highest ranked team to miss the quarterfinals. Some of that could be attributed to tough luck. Rev had a crossover match on Day 3 that was scheduled for 8pm. Rev fought off Vaqueras Freddy, rallying in Games 2 and 3 and winning 16-14 in the third. It was late night by that point and Rev had to turn around and play at 8am. Rev lost to Top Select 25-13, 26-24. Rev was up 23-20 in Game 2 but a 6-1 run from Top Select closed the door. Of the teams to reach the Top 10, six will be competing in 14 Open in Indy in Boiler Jrs, GP, A5, Top Select, WPVC and Rev. Legacy is not in 14 Open after getting passed by for an Open bid. The feeling here was Legacy should have earned one considering it has seven victories against the Open field. WPVC did get one of the eight at-larges with a 2-9 mark against the field. Of course, WPVC did beat Legacy head-to-head at the Sunshine Classic and maybe that played a part in WPVC getting one and Legacy not. It just so happened Legacy and WPVC met in the quarterfinals Saturday. Legacy moved on in three, 17-25, 25-22, 15-9, but of course it’s too late for

It’s confession time. Being a media site which is supposed to remain unbiased, neutral and fair at vballrecruiter.com, we were secretly rooting for any team other than Munciana 18 Samurai to bring home the 18 Open gold medal at AAUs in Orlando. It’s nothing personal. It’s just that the newly-crowned 18 Open gold medalist – a title Muncie earned after sweeping rival Sports Performance 18 Elite in the championship match Saturday at the ESPN Zone – made life very difficult on us. Why? In winning the national championship, Munciana opened up a debate and we are the ones who must settle it. See, way back in February Muncie won this tournament. You might have heard of it. It’s called Triple Crown and most all the top teams in the country were there. Muncie won the 18s championship, defeating Sunshine 18 LA in the final. It was Sunshine, of course, which took home the USAV 18s GJNC gold medal in April. When we released our 18s National Rankings in May it was Sunshine taking the No. 1 spot. But we did leave the door open for Muncie to reclaim it should Muncie take home gold here in Orlando. Now that that has happened, let the debate begin! There’s no arguing which of the two clubs played the harder schedule. Sunshine not only took home gold in Phoenix, it won national qualifiers in Chicago and So Cal. The only other team outside of Muncie to defeat Sunshine on a national stage was A5 Mizuno 18 Marc, also at Triple Crown. As for Muncie, it played a very limited schedule. The Indiana club hit up Triple Crown, Bluegrass in Louisville and AAUs. Muncie lost at Bluegrass to SPVB. Muncie also lost to Hou Skyline 18 Royal at Triple Crown. The biggest argument for Muncie is of course owning the head-to-head victory over Sunshine. You have two national championships, two winners, with one winner having beaten the other winner. That’s how the two stack up. We aren’t ready to make any proclamations yet. You’ll have to wait until July when we release our final national rankings. We’ll definitely be weighing both sides of the argument until then. As for the final day of the season for Muncie, it played out exactly like what we have become accustomed to seeing with the 18s from this club. Muncie rarely is going to beat itself. To get over on Muncie, opponents need to bring it and simply outplay Muncie because they won’t be handed anything. No team we saw in the 18s this season plays with as much fire and heart as Muncie does. That’s not necessarily to say Muncie is the best team, simply it’s refreshing to see the pure joy and excitement this group exudes on the court. In defeating SPVB in yesterday’s challenge match for seedings, Muncie took over the top spot and eventually met up with Coast 17-1 again in the semis. Muncie downed Kokoro 18-1 in straight sets in the quarters, while Coast held off Kairos 18 Adidas, 19-25, 25-13, 18-16, in its quarterfinal. Coast snuck past Muncie on Day 2, taking Game 3 in strong fashion, 15-9. No doubt that didn’t sit well with Muncie. After all, this is an 18 Open national championship and losing to a 17s team is going to sting. Coast came out hot in the rematch, taking the first set 25-16 before Muncie fought back and won the next two, 25-21, 15-13, to reach the final. The rematch with SPVB was not on the level of Friday’s contest, which Muncie won, 25-21, 28-30, 15-13. Saturday’s final was a more one-sided affair with Muncie prevailing, 25-23, 25-19. Muncie’s style is on its own level. The team trains and focuses on fast transition from offense to defense. That means playing great defense first, because without a dig there is no offense to transition to. It’s that speed and quickness from defense to offense that opponents have a hard time keeping up with and reacting to. At times, teams think they have a kill only to see the ball picked up and before opponents know it it’s coming right back at them. This is not a big team. Outside Eva Hudson is one of the two tallest players, along with middle Lovie Wallace. Along with Avery Ross, the outsides keep coming at opponents with aggression and putting lots of pressure on defenses. Setter Ella Bostic does well mixing in her middles with Wallace and Breanna Gross to keep teams honest. Then there is libero Ramsey Gary, who is one of the best in the Class of 2023 and a stalwart defensively. In an ideal world, we would get the rematch we all want to see between Sunshine and Munciana instead of having to decide which team deserves our final No. 1 ranking the most.