Show Me: Gold Medal Rundown
Show Me was the first qualifier this season where we saw the bid chase heavily influenced by trickle down. While I’m not the biggest fan of seeing bids determined before getting into bracket/playoff action, it wasn’t as if Show Me lacked drama on the final day. The thickest of it came out of 17 Open, where we did see one playoff match deciding the final bid with Northern Lights 17-1 sweeping past Rockwood Thunder 17 Elite, 25-17, 25-23, in the fifth-place match. Both Northern Lights and Rockwood Thunder finished third in their respective four-team gold pools and were forced into the winner-take-all match for the last remaining bid. The two teams in the 17 Open field with bids in Hou Skyline 17 Royal and MAVS KC 17-1 squared off in the championship match, with Hou Skyline producing a sweep to finish the weekend a perfect 10-0. Hou Skyline dropped just one set, with it coming in a three-set victory against Northern Lights in gold pool play. I picked Hou Skyline to beat Northern Lights in the final. It was good seeing Hou Skyline playing up to its potential. The team has had to navigate injuries at certain points this season, but was healthy in Kansas City and showed out well because of it. With Hou Skyline and MAVS KC reaching the final, it created trickle down to fifth place. It the process, GP 17 Rox and Mich Elite 17 Mizuno secured bids by taking second in their respective gold pools and tying for third. I predicted Mich Elite coming in third, but the club was dangerously close to bowing out on Day 2. GP opened Sunday’s action by beating Mich Elite, and if it wasn’t for Mich Elite closing the day with a dramatic three-set victory over PVA 17 Elite it would have been eliminated right then. I’d been waiting for both GP and Mich Elite to qualify. Mich Elite came in seventh at Triple Crown and narrowly missed qualifying at MEQ with a fifth-place finish. GP didn’t perform as well at Triple Crown, coming in 43rd. But the club did take ninth in a loaded field at Sunshine. It was nice seeing both come through in KC. By the time the gold pools wrapped up in 16 Open, the bid winners were known and it took the dramatics out of the four-team gold bracket. Boiler Jrs 16 Gold eventually prevailed over Premier Nebraska 16 Gold in the final, 21-25, 25-21, 15-11, to back my prediction of them winning it all. Boiler Jrs deserves major props for coming through Monday without two key starters in the lineup. Emma Lemming stepped up and played a huge role at outside to keep Boiler Jrs on track. Boiler Jrs set the tone early, outlasting Skyline 16 Royal in three games to open gold pool play in a match that had gigantic ripple effects. More on that in a moment. Premier Nebraska did well for itself, beating previously-qualified Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar and upstart MJVA 16 Elite in its gold pool to reach the gold bracket. Meanwhile, Pohaku 16-1 came out ahead in its three-team pool with previously-qualified HJV 16 Elite and HPSTL 16 Royal. The other gold pool featured Vital 16-1 Gold, OP2 16-1 Elite and Iowa Rockets 16R. It created a perfect opportunity for one of them to put itself in a position to qualify. Vital went 2-0 and reached the gold bracket. With Boiler Jrs the only team with a bid to reach the gold bracket, it secured bids for Pohaku, Vital and Premier Nebraska before the semifinals even started. Surprisingly, it left Skyline without a bid. That was definitely something I didn’t think would happen or see coming. It’s just part of what makes a qualifier so unpredictable. OP2 upset Boiler Jrs to end play on Day 2. That forced Boiler Jrs into Pool 1 with both Skyline and MN Select 16-1, which already had its bid. In the process, it created a golden chance for Vital, OP2 and Iowa Rockets. Unfortunately, with neither HJV nor Long Beach advancing to the gold bracket, we were robbed of further theatrics. Had either one made the gold bracket, we would have seen a playoff for the final bids between the teams that finished second in gold pool play. As for 15 Open, I outlined in the Day 2 recap that all three bids were already determined before play started Monday. PVA 15 Elite, KC Power 15-1 Black and Rockwood Thunder 15 Elite qualified by reaching the two, three-team gold pools along with previously-qualified teams in Skyline 15 Royal, VCNebraska 15 Elite and Premier Nebraska 15 Elite. Skyline ended up sweeping Rockwood Thunder, 25-15, 25-15, in the championship match. Skyline went 9-0 on the weekend, dropping just two sets and sweeping its final five contests.