March 8, 2023

The past weekend was one of the busier of the season and should have been even busier than it was. With the opening weekends of the Red Rock Rave and Northeast qualifiers, the second weekend of the Sunshine Classic, Bluegrass and the Boston Festival, something was happening just about everywhere – except for Reno. The Sierra 18s National Qualifier was snowed out and rescheduled two weeks later in Sacramento. It was simply one of those weekends. The schedule exhales and slows down this coming weekend, with Part 2 of the Red Rock Rave featuring the older age groups the only major tournament slated. Let’s check out what went down across the country over the weekend. RED ROCK RAVE WEEKEND 1 Skyline 15 Royal continues on! The Triple Crown champions showed why they are currently the No. 1 ranked team in the country after going 10-0 and winning 15 Open at the Red Rock Rave last weekend. Skyline qualified in the process as well. The latest update to vballrecruiter.com’s 15s National Rankings on March 2 featured Skyline as the top-ranked club. That’s because after winning Triple Crown Skyline boasted an impressive win-loss sheet. The only three teams to top Skyline so far are Madfrog 15 Green, Hou Skyline 15 Royal and Boiler Jrs 15 Gold. That’s to go with victories over Austin Skyline 15 Royal (three times), TAV 15 Black (twice), Madfrog (twice), Alamo 15 Premier, Hou Skyline, Drive Nation 15 Red and AP 15 Adidas. To me, it’s clear Skyline deserved the top spot. The main question is what would happen once Skyline was there? Would there be a letdown after winning Triple Crown? Would teams be able to catch up after themselves improving in the last few weeks? Skyline dropped just one set in Las Vegas, in a victory over No. 33 GP 15 Rox on the last day. Other victories came against national No. 4 Madfrog, No. 15 Wave 15 Brennan and No. 19 Forza1 North 14 One. Joining Skyline in bidding was runner-up Madfrog and third-place TAV, which defeated Wave for the last bid. As I noted in the preview, it was a deep field with 22 of the 38 teams appearing in our Top 50. It was also interesting to note that the three highest-ranked teams in our Top 50 all qualified in No. 1 Skyline, No. 4 Madfrog and No. 5 TAV. Triple Crown runner-up and national No. 10 SCVC 15 Roxy finished tied for fifth after suffering its only loss of the weekend in gold pool play to Madfrog. AZ Sky 15G – ranked No. 13 nationally – backed up its strong performance at Triple Crown by also tying for fifth. TAV was the only opponent to beat AZ Sky, with that result also coming in gold pool. AZ Sky did pick up big victories over both Drive Nation and Madfrog on Day 2. Aspire 15 Premier had a solid weekend. Ranked No. 41 in our Top 50, Aspire upset No. 14 Hou Skyline 15 Royal on Day 2 and finished in a three-way tie at 2-1 with Hou Skyline and Wave. Aspire took second based on tiebreakers while Hou Skyline was third and eliminated from bid contention. While we all missed wanting to see Arizona Storm 14 Thunder and Tstreet 14 Carson meet up at Triple Crown, the two found themselves on the same court in the 14 Open final in Las Vegas. Storm completed its perfect 10-0 weekend by downing Tstreet in three, 23-25, 25-15, 15-8. Both earned their bids, as did Mizuno Long Beach 14 Rockstar. Long Beach held off Madfrog 14 Green, 15-25, 28-26, 15-10, in the third-place match to earn the final bid. That victory felt great for Long Beach for two reasons. Not only did Long Beach qualify, but it lost twice to Madfrog in Kansas City so it got one back. Arizona Storm and Tstreet were the two highest-ranked teams, with Storm No. 1 in our Top 50 and Tstreet No. 3. Madfrog followed at No. 4, while Long Beach is currently No. 11. Skyline 14 Royal – ranked No. 5 – tied for fifth with No. 15 Wave 14 Tammy. National No. 11 Forza1 14 One and No. 19 Forza1 North 14 One – neither of which were at Triple Crown – both tied for seventh. The Hawaiian club and ninth-place finisher Mauloa 14-1 was another team not at Triple Crown but managed to crack the Top 10. With 26 teams competing, 14 Open wasn’t as big as 15 Open but was another competitive field. Of those 26, 14 are ranked in our Top 50. That includes 10 inside the Top 20. I thought with Arizona Storm and Tstreet in the field, they were the obvious favorites to bid. A lot of it came down to which would be the third team joining the bid party and we got an answer with Long Beach. That’s a well-earned bid. *** SUNSHINE CLASSIC WEEKEND 2 We finally have our first Open bids from the 16s age group. Every other age group already had Open qualifiers but it took the 16s until this past weekend to get on the board. And what a beginning it was! Talk about the unexpected, that’s exactly what happened in Orlando. Whereas our national rankings held up at the Red Rock Rave in 14 and 15 Open, 16 Open at Sunshine shattered them. None of our top seven ranked teams qualified there. In fact, national No. 30 HPSTL 16 Royal took home the gold medal and one of the three bids. HPSTL finished 25th at Triple Crown and that didn’t inspire hopes of HPSTL coming to Orlando and taking care of business. But that’s how it played out, with HPSTL coming on strong on the final day. HPSTL upset No. 8 A5 16 Gabe and beat No. 42 Rockwood Thunder 16 Elite in gold pool action to make the four-team gold bracket. HPSTL then topped No. 44 GP 16 Rox in the semis