vballrecruiter.com presents its 17s Top 50 National Rankings. At the conclusion of the national championships we will release our final 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.
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. 1ST ALLIANCE 17 GOLD
Comment: There’s no clear-cut No. 1 but 1st Alliance takes it based on a couple of factors. All three losses – two to Drive Nation 17 Red and one to A5 Mizuno 17 Jing – are to top-tier teams. On top of that, 1st Alliance owns a victory over Circle City 17 Purple, plus 17 more victories against qualified teams. Some of those are over TAV 17 Black, Premier Nebraska 17 Gold (three times) and Legacy 17-1 Adidas.
2. CIRCLE CITY 17 PURPLE
Comment: Had it not been for Circle City’s loss to 1st Alliance, the Hoosier Region club would have been the choice for No. 1. Circle City has some impressive victories under its belt, including A5, Legacy (three times), Dynasty 17 Black and Hou Skyline 17 Royal. It’s part of 16 victories when facing Open qualified opponents. The other losses were to TAV 17 Black and Rev Raptors 17-1, an unqualified team but one Circle City has also beaten.
3. A5 MIZUNO 17 JING
Comment: A5 has a couple of tough losses to unqualified teams in PVA 17 Elite and Top Select 17 Elite that could have caused A5 to be ranked lower. But, A5 did also beat both PVA and Top Select as well. It has A5 coming in at No. 3 on the strength of victories over Coast 17-1, Drive Nation and 1st Alliance. Overall, it has 14 victories over the qualified field.
4. COAST 17-1
Comment: Coast makes the Top 5 in part by owning 15 victories against the qualified field. Some of its biggest ones include beating Drive Nation (twice), Hou Skyline, Legacy, TAV, Club V 17 Ren Reed and Wave 17 Juliana (three times). Coast has lost five times, all to qualified teams. Those setbacks were to Wave, A5, OT 17 John, AZ Rev 17 Premier and Club V.
5. DRIVE NATION 17 RED
Comment: There’s an argument to be made for Drive Nation being No. 1. For one, Drive Nation has produced 21 victories against the qualified field. That’s a big number. Victories include 1st Alliance (twice), TAV (twice) and Club V. Keeping Drive Nation from being ranked higher are losses to Coast (twice) and TAV (twice), plus A5 and Tstreet 17 Naseri. Though Drive Nation did also beat Tstreet.
6. WAVE 17 JULIANA
Comment: With victories over Coast, A5 an Club V, as well as OT John, Wave has earned its placement inside the Top 10. It’s part of 13 triumphs over qualified teams. It has six losses against the field, including three to Coast, and one each to Sunshine 17 LA, ID Crush and Club V. Wave also owns two victories over Sunshine. Wave’s only questionable loss is to unqualified Elevation 17 Goller.
7. HOU SKYLINE 17 ROYAL
Comment: Hou Skyline has racked up 15 victories against Open qualified clubs. Some of its best to date feature ones over Club V (twice), Dynasty and Legacy. It does have eight losses against the field, including to Coast, Circle City, OT John, Club V and Drive Nation, as well as Metro 17 Travel, Skyline 17 Royal and KC Power 17-1.
8. CLUB V 17 REN REED
Comment: Club V has turned in a strong season thus far. It has led to 18 victories against qualified teams. Beating Dynasty, Wave, TAV, Hou Skyline and Coast are among the best ones. Club V’s setbacks have come against Hou Skyline (twice), Coast, Wave, Drive Nation, HJV 17 Elite and SynergyForce 17 Jeff. Club V also owns a victory over SynergyForce. Club V has also split a pair of matches with Legacy Girls 17 Pyramid, which earned a bid at the Red Rock Rave but declined accepting it.
9. TAV 17 BLACK
Comment: TAV has more losses – 11 – against the Open field than anyone else in the Top 10. 1st Alliance, Drive Nation, Club V and Coast are ones to teams ranked higher here. On the flip side, TAV owns some big victories as well. One of those is against Circle City. TAV also owns a pair of wins against Drive Nation as well.
10. LEGACY 17-1 ADIDAS
Comment: Rounding out the Top 10 is Legacy based on the strength of its head-to-head victory over Premier Nebraska. Legacy’s only questionable loss is to MKE Sting 17 Gold, a club Legacy also owns a victory over too. Other setbacks have come to Circle City (three times), 1st Alliance, Coast, Sunshine, Dynasty and Hou Skyline. Legacy has also beaten Sunshine this season, as well as Metro, Skyline and KC Power.
11. PREMIER NEBRASKA 17 GOLD
Comment: Almost half of Premier Nebraska’s losses are to 1st Alliance, which has beaten Premier Nebraska three times. The other setbacks have come to A5, Legacy, Skyline and MAVS KC 17-1. Premier Nebraska does own one victory against a team in the Top 10 in TAV. Some other victories against qualified opponents include MAVS, Dynasty and OT John.
12. AZ REV 17 PREMIER
Comment: As we get deeper into the rankings, the results start getting more mixed as well. Some of the better victories for AZ Rev feature Dynasty, Coast and Sunshine (twice). Losses have come against Club V (three times), Sunshine, Drive Nation and Wave, as well as Tstreet, Mintonette m.71 and AZ Storm 17 Elite, a team AZ Rev has defeated as well.
13. MN SELECT 17-1
Comment: Among some of MN Select’s better victories are a pair of wins against Dynasty, plus ones over OT John and KC Power. MN Select also has downed MAVS twice. Some of the marks working against MN Select include losses to unqualified teams in Academy 17 Tsunami and Academy 17 Diamond. It does have quality losses to Circle City, TAV, Premier Nebraska (twice) and 1st Alliance.
14. MAVS KC 17-1
Comment: MAVS can be an up-and-down team. It does own some good wins over Premier Nebraska and Dynasty (twice). It hasn’t loss to an unqualified team, with quality defeats coming against A5 (twice), Drive Nation, Legacy, TAV, Premier Nebraska and 1st Alliance.
15. DYNASTY 17 BLACK
Comment: Dynasty is a tough team to figure out and even harder to rank because of it. It owns four victories over teams ranked in the Top 10 – two against A5 and one each over Legacy and TAV. It also has some puzzling losses. Those include to Forza1 17 UA, Ku’Ikahi 17 Wahine, Academy Tsunami and Wildfire 17. All of those are unqualified teams, as well as NKYVC 17 Tsunami. But then it also has quality wins over OT John (twice), Skyline (twice) and MN Select.
16. HJV 17 ELITE
Comment: From here on out almost every team left has some real questionable losses. For HJV, one came to MN Select 17-2. It has also lost to two more unqualified teams in AVC Cle Rox 17 Red and PVA. But the other side of the coin has seen HJV pick up victories over the likes of Club V, KC Power, OT John (twice) and Sunshine.
17. OT 17 JOHN
Comment: Some impressive victories for OT John feature ones against Coast, A5, and Hou Skyline. It has also beaten Dynasty and MN Select. A couple questionable losses occurred against HPSTL 17 Royal and Union 17 Asics, both which are unqualified. OT did beat HPSTL as well. Some of the quality losses have come to A5 (three times), 1st Alliance, Premier Nebraska and Wave.
18. SKYLINE 17 ROYAL
Comment: Victories against teams ranked higher than Skyline include MN Select, Hou Skyline, Premier Nebraska and MAVS. Skyline has also split a pair of matches with KC Power. Some quality losses feature setbacks to Wave, Dynasty (twice), Legacy, TAV and 1st Alliance. But some of its questionable losses are to Topeka Impact 17-1, Adidas KiVA 17 Red and SA Magic 17 Elite.
19. ALAMO 17 PREMIER
Comment: Losses to unqualified teams in Munciana 17 Aztecs and A4 Volley 17 Joaco are working against Alamo. It does have quality losses to Premier Nebraska, OT John, Club V, Legacy and A5. Alamo has also split matches with Madfrog and AJV, as well as owning victories over Dynasty and Sunshine.
20. SUNSHINE 17 LA
Comment: Two of Sunshine’s more impressive victories have come against Wave and MN Select. It’s also 1-2 against AZ Rev. It has other quality losses to Coast, Wave (twice), OT John, TAV, Drive Nation, Legacy and Circle City. Losses to unqualified teams include Legacy Girls 17 Pyramid, Co Jrs 17 Kevin and Hive 17 Gold.
21. MADFROG 17 GREEN
Comment: Madfrog has picked up six victories over the field, including ones against Alamo and KC Power. Some of its questionable losses have been to Rage 17 Greg, Excel and Long Beach, all three of which didn’t qualify for Open. Madfrog did even it up with Long Beach by getting a win over that club. It does have some quality losses too, dropping matches to A5, Club V (three times), Drive Nation and Hou Skyline.
22. KC POWER 17-1
Comment: There have been some impressive moments for KC Power, which carries victories over Hou Skyline, Skyline and TAV. It has also lost to Skyline, along with Alamo, 1st Alliance, Legacy, MN Select, Club V and Madfrog. KC Power has also split a pair of matches with Rockwood Thunder.
23. MINTONETTE M.71
Comment: We’re at the point in the rankings where teams have more losses against the field than victories, so it can be tough to sort out. Mintonette is a great example. It owns seven victories over the field compared to nine losses. There have been a couple strong victories in beating AZ Rev, MAVS and Dynasty, as well as Metro. There have been quality losses to Circle City (three times), Drive Nation, TAV, Legacy and MAVS. But there have been some tough results, ones that includes setbacks to MKE Sting (twice) and Rev Raptors (twice), as well as AVC Cle (twice). Mintonette does own one victory over MKE Sting.
24. UPVBC 17 OPEN
Comment: Ultimate Performance cracks the Top 25 based on a pair of victories over Metro. It also owns another one over ID Crush. UPVBC has also split a pair of outings with Rev Raptors and has taken some tough losses to Illini Elite and Iowa PowerPlex 17 Black.
25. METRO 17 TRAVEL
Comment: Helping Metro getting into the Top 25 are big-time victories over TAV and Hou Skyline. Those help offset losses to unqualified teams in High Tide 17 Elite and Paramount VBC 17. Some quality losses have come against Hou Skyline, A5, OT John, Dynasty and Legacy.
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26. TSTREET 17 NASERI
Comment: Tstreet is one of four teams to own a victory over Drive Nation, which it has split a pair of meetings with.
27. AJV 17 ADIDAS
Comment: Austin Jrs’ results have been a little all over the place. But a pair of victories over TAV is strong. The club has also played a challenging schedule, losing twice to Hou Skyline, four times to Drive Nation and once to Club V. It does have some puzzling losses as well. Those include losing twice to TCVA 17 Green Adidas, as well as to Tx Performance 17s.
28. ID CRUSH 17 BOWER
29. CHAVC 17 BLACK
30. TOP SELECT 17 ELITE
Comment: Top Select is the first team to appear in the rankings that doesn’t have an Open bid (yet, as it might be in the running for the one at-large). But Top Select did beat A5, as well as AJV, Mich Elite and CUVC.
31. CUVC 17 PREMIER
32. MICHIGAN ELITE 17 MIZUNO
33. ROCKWOOD THUNDER 17 ELITE
34. SYNERGYFORCE 17 JEFF
35. AVC CLE ROX 17 RED
Comment: Another team without an Open bid, AVC has some good wins along the way. Those include beating qualified teams in Rockwood Thunder, HJV and Mintonette (twice).
36. MKE STING 17 GOLD
Comment: Like AVC, MKE Sting is not qualified for Open but has picked up some quality victories in topping qualified teams Mintonette (twice), Absolute Black 17, AZ Storm and Legacy.
37. ASPIRE 17 PREMIER
Comment: Some of the victories against the field for Aspire – which is not qualified for Open – include AJV, Mich Elite, Absolute, AZ Storm and Tstreet.
38. NEBRASKA ELITE 17 VICI
39. CLUB V 17 REN MATTHEW
40. AZ STORM 17 THUNDER
41. ACADEMY 17 DIAMOND
42. ABSOLUTE 17 BLACK
43. OJVA 17-1 GOLD
44. REV RAPTORS 17-1
Comment: Rev Raptors, which is unqualified for Open, has six victories against the Open field. Those include beating Mintonette (twice), Circle City, Mich Elite, UPVBC and AZ Storm. But it has losses to HPSTL 17 Royal, GP 17 Rox, Tx Performance and OJVA.
45. LEGACY GIRLS 17 PYRAMID
46. ELEVATION 17 GOLLER
47. NKYVC 17 TSUNAMI
Comment: Some of NKYVC wins over the Open field feature beating Metro, CHAVC and Dynasty.
48. NORTHERN LIGHTS 17-1
49. PVA 17 ELITE
50. NO NAME 17-1
ON THE CUSP
Co Jrs 17 Kevin
Asics Willowbrook 17 Gold
Excel 17 National Red
Academy 17 Tsunami
Illini Elite 17 Cardinal
Adidas KiVA 17 Red
Iowa Rockets 17R
Munciana 17 Aztecs
Union 17 Asics
HPSTL 17 Royal
Tri-State Elite 17 Blue
