July 21, 2022

July 19 marked the final day of the BVCA 2022 National Championship. Below is a recap of the Gold bracket for 14U, which had exciting finishes along with the dominating performance of Madsand in the Open Division of 5 versus 5.14UQuarterfinals Gentry Barker/Haylee Wright vs Tiana Shaw/Layli Ostovar – Shaw and Ostovar were patient defending the power of Wright. Wright’s got such a powerful swing it was scoring tons of points leading up to this match. Ostovar’s answers with a big swing of her own and along with Shaw’s defense, they served smarter and kept the ball in play more often for a three-set victory.Layla Austin/Jordyn Scribner vs Allyn Brewer/Sophee Peterson – Austin has one of the hardest swings on the beach and it sure helped keep her team undefeated into this match. Both Peterson and Brewer handle the net duties well. Peterson was really strong blocking at the net winning most blocking and jousts. While Brewer, who jumps well and has a whip for an arm swing, had no problem scoring. This duo won in straight sets with their ball control.Blaire Bowers/Gabriella Rodriguez vs Shayla Martinez/Ciela Luna Hendrickson – Martinez and Hendrickson have good ball control. With Hendrickson’s good serves and stellar defense, matching up with quickness and good left-handed swing of Martinez, they made for a well-balanced team. They just ran into the power of Bower’s big swing, whether with a full approach or short one she gets the same results, a big kill. While Rodriguez digs most balls that get past the block and can also convert with a good jump for this small defender. They won in two close sets to move on.Audrey Flanagan/Olga Nikolaeva vs Kennedi Diamond/Paisley Pavliska – Diamond and Pavliska complement each other well on offense. Diamond primarily on the right side has got a good cross court swing that gave defenders fits, while Pavliska has got a good high reach and disguises her swing with roll shots to keep defender guessing. Nikolaeva had a big impact in this match going on long serving runs with her pinpoint accuracy. Flanagan chipped in with big swings of her own and this duo won in straight sets.Semifinals Blaire Bowers/Gabriella Rodriguez vs Audrey Flanagan/Olga Nikolaeva – What an exciting match. Within the first seven points there were three blocks and many defensive thrillers. The tone was set. Rodriguez and Nikolaeva were both amazing to watch as they mirror each other with their hustle and energy playing behind the block. Bowers had big moments with her kills that gave her team momentum. Flanagan matched her blocking counterpart with big swings of her own, but the separation came from her blocking. That skill took the other team out of the game plan and the moved on to the finals with a 2-0 victory.Tiana Shaw/Layli Ostovar vs Allyn Brewer/Sophee Peterson – These two teams mirrored each other with the same style. Low error, ball control groups that force opponents into errors. In this match Brewer and Peterson excelled at their craft. Peterson’s athleticism at the net blocking was forcing a lot of errors and easy dig and conversions for Brewer. With Brewer’s tough serves this duo breezed into the finals with a dominating two-set victory.FinalsAudrey Flanagan//Olga Nikolaeva vs Allyn Brewer/Sophee Peterson – This match pitted the ball control and Brewer and Peterson going up against the strength of Flanagan at the net. Brewer continues to impress with her arm as she was getting big swings past the block of Flanagan early on and winning a joust versus the 6-1 blocker. Peterson was showing her athleticism with quick drop off the nets then quickly transitioning for amazing points. Flanagan got her revenge with three blocks in the set coupled with many aces as her team won 21-17. The second set was a blend of power and savvy for Flanagan’s team. Nikolaeva surprised everyone by going with the option play continuously to keep the defense off balance. While Flanagan absolutely dominated at the net recording five blocks in this set as they cruised to 21-11 win giving them the BVCA 14U title. ***Open Division 5v5A recap of how this tournament is formatted. This division pits club versus club. Each club picks five pairs to represent a team and in the matchup the first team to have three out of five pairs wins. Madsand won the Open Division of 5v5 in dominating fashion. This club brought enough pairs to make two teams, a Madsand White and Madsand Black. The Black team had a strong run, going undefeated on Day 1 and eventually lost in the quarterfinals. This team had a pair that went undefeated in play. The domination was with the White team which won it all with a 7-0 record. The amazing numbers comes from their pairs as they went 30-0 in matches and an unbelievable 60-3 in sets! They were only pushed to three sets in three out of 30 matches. Below we have highlighted Madsand’s six pairs that went undefeated as our Show Stoppers of Day 5. Maggie Boyd/Gabrielle Walker – Boyd-UCLA, Walker-USC Liv Johnson/Madison Morrow – Johnson-LMU, Morrow-SFA Mabyn Thomas/Madison Goellner – Thomas-USC, Goellner-USC Kaileigh Truslow/Harper Cooper – Truslow-FSU, Cooper-UCLA Kaylee Young/Dylan Kate Brewer – Young-USC, Brewer-FGCU Presley Wright/Katherine Hansen – Wright-South Carolina, Hansen-Santa Clara A big spotlight goes to Maggie Boyd/Gabriella Walker as they won AVP 18U, BVCA 18U and 5v5 titles this past two weeks. They should bring some Hermosa sand back home to Texas as a reminder of their great run. In their their tournaments they were pushed to three sets five times, while going undefeated with a 26-0 record!

Our final Club National Rankings release continues on with the 16s division. You can find the 18s and 17s that were already put out by clicking on the links. 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 and AAU national championships. All these come into play. We put more weight on what happened at Junior Nationals than a qualifier 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 as a team might be too high or low overall 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. 1. MADFROG 16 GREEN (22 – previous ranking) Madfrog put together an unbelievable run in winning the 16 Open gold medal at Junior Nationals. There was no way to predict Madfrog could pull off the unexpected the way the North Texas Region club did. Madfrog had a good but not great season heading into Indy. There was a 13th-place finish at Triple Crown followed by coming in 11th at the Salt Lake City qualifier. Madfrog then qualified by taking third at PNQ and finished off with a fifth at the Lone Star Classic qualifier. We had Madfrog ranked No. 22 heading into JN’s. Madfrog actually lost two of its first three outings in Indy, falling to MKE Sting 16 Gold and NKYVC 16-1 Tsunami with a victory over SG Elite 16 Rosh in between. But after the loss to NKYVC, Madfrog reeled off eight consecutive victories, including beating A5 Mizuno 16 Gabe in the second round of pool play and again in the gold medal match. Madfrog also topped AJV 16 Adidas in challenge play and then 1st Alliance 16 Gold in the quarterfinals and Premier Nebraska 16 Gold in the semis. Madfrog entered JN’s with seven victories against Open teams and surpassed that number with eight wins in Indy. Madfrog ends the season 15-12 against Open foes. 2. A5 MIZUNO 16 GABE (3) It was a tough ending to a remarkable year as A5 fell one victory short of pulling off the double. Few teams had the overall consistent A5 displayed. The team never finished lower than fifth place, where it placed at Triple Crown. A5 ended first at Central Zone and Bluegrass, as well as winning the Sunshine Classic qualifier. A5 also earned second at Northern Lights and third at Big South. A5 went undefeated in winning 16 Open at AAU and then brought home the silver medal in 16 Open at Indy. It lost three times in Indy, twice to Madfrog and once to KC Power 16-1, which came in the last match of the first round of pool play after A5 already had the pool clinched. A5 earned a big victory over TAV 16 Black in challenge play and then topped original No. 1 seed Dynasty 16 Black in the semis. A5 posted a 27-7 mark against Open-qualified teams, as well as beating Munciana 16 Moana twice and Tri-State Elite 16 Blue once. 3. DYNASTY 16 BLACK (1) If Junior Nationals carried equal weight as every other tournament this season, Dynasty would be the top team in the nation in our final rankings. No team put up better results heading into Indy than Dynasty. It included winning Triple Crown, MEQ, Windy City and Northern Lights, as well as taking third at Show Me and earning the bronze medal at JN’s. Dynasty started slow in Indy, losing two of its first three matches to OT 16 Roberto and TAV. It was surprising given Dynasty only lost two matches coming into the tourney – to TAV and NKYVC. Dynasty earned the bronze by beating NKYVC in the quarters before falling to A5 in the semis. Dynasty finishes 26-5 against Open opponents. 4. NKYVC 16-1 TSUNAMI (2) NKYVC was remarkably steady and consistent all season and showed strong at Junior Nationals, losing only to Dynasty in the quarterfinals. NKYVC’s showing at Indy included beating eventual champion Madfrog in pool play. NKYVC didn’t finish lower than fifth at any event. NKYVC won Central Zone, took seconds at Show Me, Triple Crown and the JVA SummerFest, thirds at Bluegrass and NEQ and tied for fifth at MEQ. NKYVC went 21-8 against Open competition. 5. 1ST ALLIANCE 16 GOLD (7) It was not surprising to see 1st Alliance tie for fifth place at Junior Nationals. Not after the season put together by the Great Lakes Region club. 1st Alliance lost to Metro 16 Travel in the first round of pool play and to MKE Sting 16 Gold in the second round of pool play, but defeated Seal Beach 16 Black in challenge play, as well picking up victories over Coast 16-1 and Co Jrs 16 Sherri. After coming in 29th at Triple Crown, 1st Alliance went on a tear and didn’t finish lower than second place until JN’s. It featured runner-ups at Sunshine, Windy City and MEQ. 1st Alliance finishes 16-14 against Open opponents. 6. PREMIER NEBRASKA 16 GOLD (18) Premier Nebraska makes a huge leap into the Top 10 in our final national rankings, moving up 12 spots from No. 18. Perhaps