June 8, 2023

With the USAV national championships approaching at the end of the month, we’ve attempted to rank the qualifiers for those who earned Open bids. We’ve already covered the 15, 16 and 17s divisions. The last up is 14 Open. The method we used was hardly perfect and is relative of course. At the same time, it does shed light on what may be the toughest qualifier of the season. The factors we used to determine the list we came up with are 1) Number of eventual Open qualifiers; 2) Percent of Eventual Open qualifiers from the overall field; 3) The number of ranked teams from vballrecruiter.com’s Top 50; 4) the average rank of the teams from the Top 50. We took the average of those four rankings and listed them from 1-12 for each qualifier. The full breakdown is below, with comments. 14 OPEN RED ROCK RAVE (*Average: 1.75) (overall rank – 1) Number of Teams: 26 Bids Available: 3 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 0 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 12 (overall rank – 1)* Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 46 (overall rank – 3)* Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 14 (overall rank – t2)* Average Rank: 16 (overall rank – 1)* Comment: Red Rock also took top honors in 15 Open and there are similarities. One being that there was no trickle-down available. Given the overall strength and that teams needed to finish in the top three, teams should feel extremely proud getting the job done here. Red Rock had 12 eventual Open qualifiers, or a third of the field we’ll see in Chicago. What was remarkable is 46 percent of the field were eventual Open qualifiers and that was only good for third place! Another show of strength is having 14 teams from our Top 50 and leading the way with an average rank of 16! That’s impressive. *** SUNSHINE CLASSIC (Avg: 3.25) (2) Number of Teams: 18 Bids Available: 2 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 0 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 10 (t4) Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 56 (1) Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 16 (1) Average Rank: 26 (7) Comment: The smaller field sizes in 14 Open made for some interesting results. Sunshine was tops in percent of eventual Open qualifiers It also led the way with 16 teams from our Top 50. But that actually hurt Sunshine a bit in that it was middle of the pack in Top-50 average at 26. Then again, you also have to consider Sunshine was another qualifier without any benefit of trickle down. *** LONE STAR CLASSIC (Avg: 4.25) (3) Number of Teams: 24 Bids Available: 3 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 5 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 10 (t4) Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 42 (t6) Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 10 (t5) Average Rank: 18 (2) Comment: Again, the smaller fields made 14 Open different. With Lone Star having 42 percent of the field eventually qualifying for Open, that would be tops in other divisions. But in 14 Open it placed Lone Star only tied for sixth. That was Lone Star’s lowest ranking. It shined with Top-50 average, taking second overall at 18. *** SALT LAKE SHOWDOWN (Avg: 4.75) (t4) Number of Teams: 20 Bids Available: 2 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 6 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 9 (t6) Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 45 (4) Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 10 (t5) Average Rank: 25 (t4) Comment: This qualifier was near the bottom in the other age divisions. However, it was clearly strong in 14 Open. Salt Lake did well with Top-50 average rank at 25. And also with percent of eventual Open qualifiers, coming in fourth at 45. Another thing, half the field was from our Top 50. *** NORTHERN LIGHTS (Avg: 4.75) (t4) Number of Teams: 26 Bids Available: 3 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 0 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 11 (t2) Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 42 (t6) Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 15 (2) Average Rank: 29 (9) Comment: Northern Lights was one of three qualifiers to not have any trickle-down available. That was not taken into account. But Northern Lights scored high with 15 teams from our Top 50. It also had 11 eventual Open qualifiers out of a field of 26. *** MEQ (Avg: 5.25) (6) Number of Teams: 32 Bids Available: 32 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 2 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 11 (t2) Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 34 (9) Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 14 (t2) Average Rank: 27 (8) Comment: MEQ was the only qualifier to surpass 30 total teams. The bigger field size really hurt MEQ in terms of eventual Open qualifiers. There were 11 there, which tied Northern Lights for second overall. But the larger field dropped MEQ’s percentage to ninth. Like Northern Lights, MEQ also had a high number of Top-50 teams, but was brought down by a lower average.   *** FAR WESTERN (Avg: 6) (7) Number of Teams: 22 Bids Available: 3 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 5 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 9 (t6) Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 41 (8) Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 9 (7) Average Rank: 23 (3) Comment: It was a solid year for Far Western. What really stood out was the Top-50 average rank. Far Western was third in that category at 23. That was surprising as Far Western was middle of the pack in the other three areas. *** WINDY CITY (Avg: 6.25) (8) Number of Teams: 16 Bids Available: 2 Number of Previously-Qualified Teams: 3 Number of Eventual Open Qualifiers: 7 (8) Percent Eventually Qualified from Field: 44 (5) Number of Ranked Teams from vballrecruiter.com Top 50: 7 (t8) Average Rank: 25 (t4) Comment: Windy City had a strong Top-50 average rank and did well with percent of eventual Open qualifiers. But a really small field kept the other numbers down in