July 18, 2022

vballrecruiter.com presents its final 18s Top 50 National Rankings. There are lots of factors to take into consideration when formulating a list like this. It leaves plenty of room for debate as these rankings are ultimately subjective. There are power league results, qualifier results, national tournaments like Triple Crown and of course the USAV Girls Junior Nationals 18s and AAU national championships. All these come into play. We put more weight on what happened in Phoenix than a qualifier in January because the whole season is built toward peaking at JN’s. We also had one steadfast rule we didn’t break no matter the circumstances. That rule was if Team A defeated Team B in a gold challenge match or gold bracket match at JN’s, Team A is always going to be ranked ahead of Team B. That’s because everyone comes to JN’s to win a gold medal and if Team A eliminates Team B from contention, it won at the absolute right time. It can make for some skewed overall rankings but what’s the point if the biggest head-to-head matches of the season aren’t the most important ones? The Top 25 teams have comments to hopefully give some insight as to why they are ranked where they are. A select few from 26-50 have comments as well but not all. There was only one minor change to the rankings after taking into consideration results from AAU. That was switching around Munciana 18 Samurai and SPVB 18 Elite after Munciana defeated SPVB in the 18 Open final at AAU in Orlando. With Munciana winning AAU, there was consideration whether or not Munciana should replace Sunshine in the No. 1 spot in our national rankings because Munciana does own a head-to-head victory over Sunshine their lone meeting. While there is an argument to put Munciana in the top spot, we held off based on overall strength of schedule. Sunshine played one of the top-three toughest schedules in the country and loss just four times all season while going undefeated at two national qualifiers and the 18 Open national championships. Given that, we kept Sunshine at the top. 1. SUNSHINE 18 LA Comment: The USAV 18 Open gold medalist was the easy choice to be No. 1. Munciana owns a head-to-head victory over Sunshine in the finals of Triple Crown, but as we stated strength of schedule was a factor keeping Sunshine No. 1. A5 Mizuno 18 Marc is the only other team to own a victory against Sunshine on the national stage. Coast 18-1 and Mizuno Long Beach 18 Rockstar each picked up a victory against Sunshine in local Premier Volleyball League action. Sunshine collected 38 victories against the Open field, including its time in Phoenix. That’s the most of any team. 2. MADFROG 18 GREEN Comment: Madfrog showed moments of vulnerability in losing pool matches to Adversity 18 Adidas and FC Elite 18 Elite at JN’s. Yet, it responded by upsetting A5 in its challenge match on its way to finishing with the silver medal. That propelled Madfrog to No. 2 in the rankings. Yes, A5 did defeat Madfrog in Nashville, but there’s no doubt that A5 would gladly trade that victory for the one in Phoenix that didn’t happen. Madfrog also owns impressive victories outside of JN’s which includes beating Hou Skyline 18 Royal, Skyline 18 Royal, Coast and SASVBC 18-1. 3. A5 MIZUNO 18 MARC Comment: A5 had a tremendous overall season. It just lost one match at the wrong time when it fell to Madfrog in the challenge round at JN’s. That was only A5’s third loss in a national tournament. OT 18 Chad and AZ Rev 18 Premier join Madfrog as the only clubs to own a victory over A5. A5 finished the year 3-1 against OT and 1-1 against Madfrog. A5 earned 31 victories against the Open field, second only to Sunshine. 4. MUNCIANA 18 SAMURAI Comment: Compared to others in the rankings, Muncie has played a much lighter schedule but has proved itself to be among the top in the country regardless. Not only does the club own a victory over Sunshine in the final of Triple Crown, it owns 10 more victories against teams which qualified for 18 Open at JN’s. Its only losses are to SPVB, Hou Skyline and Coast 17-1. Given the lighter schedule Muncie comes in at No. 4. 5. SPVB 18 ELITE Comment: It’s difficult ranking SPVB simply because it doesn’t have the same strength of schedule as others. Still, what it does have in terms of results has to be taken into consideration. SPVB owns a victory over Munciana and Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite, which finished tied for third at JN’s. SPVB only losses were to Team Indiana 18 Elite, which finished in the top half at JN’s, and Munciana in the 18 Open final at AAU. 6. ROCKWOOD THUNDER 18 ELITE Comment: From here on out it starts getting interesting as the results get more and more mixed and mashed. There’s no denying Rockwood Thunder turned in a strong performance at JN’s by tying for the bronze medal. It’s only losses there were to Madfrog in the semis and to Vital in pool play. It upset Coast in challenge play. On the season, RT has just one loss to a non-qualified 18 Open squad and that was against CUVC 18 Premier. It also owns a victory over Skyline, which tied for fifth at JN’s. 7. SKYLINE 18 ROYAL Comment: Skyline’s run to a fifth-place tie at JN’s included just one loss, to Sunshine in the quarterfinals. Like Rockwood Thunder, Skyline lost just once to a non-qualified 18 Open team in SA Junior 18 Adidas. It did earn some strong victories leading up to JN’s by topping Coast, Hou Skyline and Madfrog. It also owns head-to-head victories over bronze medalist FC Elite and Adversity, which tied for fifth. 8. FC ELITE 18 ELITE Comment: Some could argue by virtue of finishing with a bronze medal at JN’s that