Ten of the original top 13 seeds were still in the hunt for the 15 Open gold medal in the modified 12-team gold bracket Wednesday. It featured the top three seeds in OT 15 Randy, Asics Munciana 15 Lorax and Legacy 15-1 Adidas. The three just happened to be the highest-ranked teams in the field from our National Rankings too, with OT at No. 7, Legacy at No. 8 and Munciana at No. 25.
Along with Mich Elite 15 Mizuno – which opened as the No. 11 seed and was the fifth-highest ranked team in the field from our National Rankings at No. 27 – all walked away with medals. Tops among everyone was Legacy, which edged out OT in three games, 23-25, 25-21, 15-12, for the gold medal. Mich Elite and Munciana, which met on Day 3 in pool play, tied for the bronze.
“I’ll tell you what, we’ve won a couple of national championships in the past but you never really know if you’ll ever get back and play for another one,” Legacy coach Ricky Cottrill said. “The way the last couple of matches started off I didn’t know what it was going to be like. We had a rough set against Munciana then another rough set to start in the championship game. Our girls were resilient and battled. They played their hearts out and when you do that good things seem to happen.”
Overall, the gold bracket produced entertaining volleyball as seven of the 11 contests went the distance, including both semifinals. Legacy barely made it past Munciana, 17-25, 26-24, 17-15. The same went for OT, which clipped Mich Elite, 25-21, 26-28, 15-13.
Legacy – which finished 11-0 for the week – hadn’t faced either Munciana or OT Randy yet this season. Before getting to either of those teams, Legacy extracted a measure of revenge in the quarterfinals by sweeping past Far Out 15 Black. Far Out defeated Legacy earlier this month at the JVA SummerFest but Legacy had the answer in Orlando.
Munciana was a different beast. Cottrill said Muncie was the best passing team Legacy has dueled with all season. Munciana’s only prior setback came to Mich Elite to end pool play on Day 3. But Muncie still earned first place in the pool and retained the No. 2 overall seed.
Legacy was ahead 11-9 in the final set but Muncie pulled even at 12 all. The teams played side out volleyball until setter Campbell Flynn delivered a match-clinching block to end the drama.
OT was pushed all day long, starting with the quarterfinal clash against Kairos 15 Adidas. OT moved on in three, 25-17, 20-25, 15-11. Then in the semis, OT had to deal with a key injury. Libero Lily Hayes went down midway through the second set and OT had to play the rest of the frame without her and was unable to replace her until the third set with Aaliyah Harlow. Hayes was wearing a sling on her right arm as she watched from the sidelines in the final. Her status for next week’s USAV GJNC is unknown.
OT almost rallied back in the second set against Mich Elite despite trailing 19-13. OT actually held match point at 24-23 after Maggie Dostic’s ace. Mich Elite held on before OT finally finished it in Game 3 on Kaylee Peper’s quick attack.
“I’m super happy and excited,” OT coach Randy Thomas said. “We overcame a couple of big third games. We battled and powered through. We are doing something right. We just came up a little short. We mis-executed when we needed it those last couple of points to seal the deal. I’m stoked for the team. It’s exciting. It’s not easy to make a final of Open. We were right there.”
The championship match was there for the taking for both sides. Tied at 10 all in Game 3, Legacy used a 4-1 run to lead 14-11. Two points later Gabriella Divita ripped down her second big kill in three points to close it out as Legacy hit the floor in celebration.
Both Legacy and OT are headed to Indy for 15 Open, which begins Monday.
“You know what was working well, we passed pretty darn well,” Cottrill said. “We passed better than we have the last couple of tournaments and that’s the key for us. When we pass well we can run our offense. We have good attackers we can take advantage of and an aggressive setter who we can give opportunities in the front row. That was our biggest key this week our ability to pass and our ability to scrap on defense.”
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Getting to some more thoughts on 15 Open, I’m going to shamelessly plug the 15s National Rankings produced last month.
In 14 Open, four of our top five ranked teams in the field found their way to the podium. It was the same scenario in 15 Open.
We had OT Randy at No. 7 (silver medal); Legacy at No. 8 (gold); Munciana at No. 25 (bronze) and Mich Elite at No. 27 (bronze). Adidas KiVA 15 Red – at No. 26 – didn’t make the gold bracket. National Rankings can be a bit of crap shoot so it’s nice when they hold up at national championships.
One thing is for sure, Munciana is going to finish higher than No. 25 in our final rankings released in July. Munciana can be a hard team to rank because it plays a limited schedule but the Indiana club showed it’s among the best in the nation. I confidently feel this team would place Top 10 in 15 Open in Indy next week if it were competing there.
Far Out is like Munciana in that the club doesn’t do qualifiers. Far Out is listed in the On The Cusp section in our National Rankings. Far Out beat three ranked teams in Indy – A5 Mizuno 15 Bob, GP (in gold bracket action) and Top Select 15 Elite and is likely to finish in our final Top 50 because of it.
While it wasn’t surprising to see Legacy, OT and Munciana fare well, Mich Elite keeps coming up clutch. This team came on at Big South and has been producing since. Mich Elite was actually close to getting knocked out of contention on Day 3 but pulled out a clutch victory over Munciana to make the gold bracket. That can’t be forgotten or overlooked.
Mich Elite is going to have a hard time making the top half at GJNC, but this is a team that as soon as you start to count it out rises up so I could be way off base in that thinking.
A team that impressed in 15 Open was unranked Kairos 15 Adidas. Not only did Kairos make the gold bracket, it was only a handful of points away from reaching the semifinals!
Unfortunately, ID Crush 15 Bower was dealt a big blow despite finishing tied for fifth. After a slow start on Days 1 and 2, ID Crush came alive on Day 3 but played the final day without outside hitter Maija Howse. She was on the sidelines with crutches and a walking boot on her foot and her availability for GJNC next week doesn’t look hopeful.
GP 15 Rox and Northern Lights 15-1 are two more teams in 15 Open in Indy and both tuned up in Orlando with ninth-place finishes.
Teams I haven’t mentioned yet include Boiler Jrs 15 Gold and OT 15 Meg. Boiler Jrs finished tied for fifth as its season came to a close. Boiler Jrs did well, giving itself a shot to make the semifinals after taking down SPVB 15 Elite in the play-in for the quarterfinal. However, Munciana was too much for Boiler Jrs in the next one.
OT Meg is playing well late in the season. After making it to the semifinals of 15 Open at the JVA West Coast Cup in Long Beach, OT Meg gave itself a shot in Orlando. But Kairos pulled out a big victory in the play-in to the quarterfinal to end OT Meg’s run.
The season is not over for OT Meg, though. The team is participating in 15 National in Indy.
