Chris Tobolski

vballrecruiter.com has been on hand for the Salt Lake City Showdown, SCVA 18s Qualifier and MEQ but it was the Red Rock Rave in Las Vegas producing the most Day 3 drama yet! We’ll have a quick rundown of the action below. Make sure to check back for our standout players list featuring top outsides, middles, right sides, setters and defenders from the Open divisions in the next couple of days. We’ll also be providing more coverage of the results and bid winners. For now though, let’s get to the heart of it all. In 17 Open, Coast 17-1 walked away with both its bid and the championship after beating Drive Nation 17 Red in three sets. Drive Nation was already qualified after tying for third at MEQ last weekend. Tstreet 17 Naseri – in a big surprise! – grabbed one of the other bids. Wave 17 Julianna – in an unusual way – landed the third bid. The four-team gold bracket in 17 Open consisted of Drive Nation, Coast, Tstreet and Legacy Girls 17 Pyramid, which was another major surprise of the weekend. Legacy upset Club V to win its gold pool and make the final four. With only Drive Nation having a bid, all three bids appeared to be awarded. That meant Wave – in the sliver bracket with Club V 17 Ren Reed, ID Crush 17 Bower and AZ Rev 17 Premier – was left out without a chance of playing for a bid. However, Legacy declined its Open bid and thus Wave received the last bid. That’s because Club V, Crush and Rev were already qualified and Wave was the next in line. How unbelievable is that? The drama was just as compelling in 16 Open, where Wave 16 Brennan earned its bid and the title by beating Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar in the final. Beach already had its bid. Coast 16-1, also already qualified, was part of the drama unfolding. Vision 16 Gold clinched second in the other gold pool and was guaranteed a bid once Beach won the second gold pool. However, while Vision knew where it stood, a couple of others didn’t in Seal Beach 16 Black and Drive Nation 16 Red. AZ Storm 16 Thunder was also in flux but controlled its own fate. Storm needed to beat Coast to create a three-way tie at 1-2 with Coast and Seal Beach. But Storm needed to win in straight sets to grab third and play Drive Nation for a bid. In that scenario, Seal Beach would’ve faced Vision in the third-place match and earned its bid. Yet, Coast prevailed in three sets. That paired Coast and Vision in the third-place match and left Seal Beach and Drive Nation playing for the last bid. Drive Nation swept to go home happy. There was potential for a winner-take-all fifth-place showdown in 15 Open too. However, that didn’t materialize. As it went down, AZ Storm 15 Thunder picked up its second qualifier victory of the season after winning in Salt Lake. This time, Storm swept past upstart Tstreet 15 Curtis, which joined the list of surprise teams of the weekend in qualifying. Tstreet won its pool by upsetting Drive Nation 15 Red, which already had its bid. Coast 15-1, in the same pool as Storm and TAV 15 Black, was left in limbo while things played out. TAV swept Coast to take second and make the third-place contest. That meant TAV had its bid but wasn’t sure of its opponent. Wave 15 Scott and Club V 15 Ren Matthew were still playing the 1 v 2 match in the other gold pool with ramifications in the balance. A Club V victory would’ve placed Drive Nation in the third-place match against TAV and set up a Club V-Coast fifth-place matchup for the final bid. Wave winning meant Wave going to the third-place match and Coast nor Club V having a shot at qualifying. Wave prevailed in two sets to wrap up the final bid.

Below, we get down to some of the nuts and bolts of Day 2 of the Red Rock Rave in Las Vegas. We’ll have our substantial standout individual players write up after the three-day tournament is complete. Some names from Day 2 that are sure to land on there includes San Gabriel Elite 16 Rosh setter Taylor Yu, Wave 16 Brennan libero Maya Evens and Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar middle Jade Dudley-Epps. A few from 17 Open that are likely to be featured as well includes Tstreet 17 Naseri outside Eva Travis, Legacy Girls 17 Pyramid middle blocker Victoria Davis and Hive 17 Gold middle blocker Maggie Mendelson. From 15 Open, Coast 15-1 pin hitter Ava Poinsett, Wave 15 Scott outside Mae Kordes and Vision 15 Gold outside Ella Duong are also strong candidates to be written about. For now, here are some thoughts on the happenings of Day 2. 17 Open All the expected top teams are still in contention in 17 Open but it didn’t go down as expected. Drive Nation 17 Red and Sunshine 17 LA each suffered setbacks in their respective pools in the most surprising results of the day. Sunshine was down three starters in Salt Lake City last month but did get outside Grace Thrower back for Red Rock and was using her at opposite. However, Sunshine fell to Hive 17 Gold in the 1 v 4 match in Pool 6. Sunshine still controlled its own fate though and took advantage. It needed to beat ID Crush 17 Bower to create a three-way tie with Crush and Hive. And in doing so Sunshine would take first. Sunshine pulled through to advance but Hive was the unfortunate tiebreaker recipient as it finished third. Crush taking second is big from the possible trickle-down standpoint, as Crush is in the final eight along with Drive Nation, Club V 17 Ren Reed and AZ Rev 17 Premier – the other previously qualified clubs. Drive Nation, meanwhile, was already assured a spot in the gold pools when it met Tstreet 17 Naseri in the 1 v 2 match. Both were 2-0, but still Tstreet coming through is a big upset and no doubt a confidence booster for the So Cal club as it looks to gain its Open bid. Club V, AZ Rev, Coast 17-1 and Wave 17 Juliana were the other pool winners. OJVA 17-1 Gold, OMNI 17 Rick, Excel 17 National Red and Legacy Girls 17 Pyramid also advance as second-place teams from their respective pools. Legacy was the only No. 4 team from a pool to move forward. Legacy topped Tx Performance 17s and Mizuno Long Beach 17 Rockstar to remain alive. OMNI and Excel remained in the hunt as No. 3 teams from their pools. Excel took down short-handed Aspire 17 Premier – which was playing with 5-6 L/DS Rachel Reed at a middle spot out of need – on its way to taking second. OMNI was able to upend A4 Volley 17 Joaco in the 2 v 3 match to help its cause of making the gold pools. As a result of Sunshine and Drive Nation both losing, they wound up in the same gold pool for Day 3. Along with AZ Rev. AZ Rev and Drive Nation having bids don’t need to fret, but that’s a difficult pool suddenly for Sunshine. With four, three-team pools, the pools winners, if unqualified, will almost certainly qualify. But with trickle down not going past seventh place, teams must get second to have any shot. One of the bigger pool matches is in Pool 4 with Coast and Wave. The pool also features OJVA but it figures Coast or Wave will win the pool. The other might find itself having to play out for a bid. It would be shocking for Club V, in a pool with Legacy and Excel, not to come out ahead and at least create trickle down to fourth place. It’s possible ID Crush can beat both Tstreet and OMNI and run trickle down to at least fifth. And it’s likely Drive Nation or AZ Rev emerges into the top four from their pool, so I foresee trickle down going to sixth at least. But in that scenario, the four second-place teams would at least need to play one more match to help decide which clubs get the final two bids. Get your popcorn ready! 16 Open Gold pools began competition Sunday evening. Pool 1 featured Wave, Vision 16 Gold, Momentous 16 Dan and Drive Nation 16 Red. Pool 2 consisted of Coast 16-1, Arizona Storm 16 Thunder, Long Beach and Seal Beach 16 Black. Coast and Long Beach have their bids and no one else. Beach defeated Coast in an exciting three-setter to open pool play. Seal Beach, which lost to AZ Storm in Salt Lake City, extracted some revenge in beating Storm in the 2 v 4 meeting. Pool 1 held to seed, with Wave coming back to beat Momentous in three and Vision sweeping Drive Nation. The furthest trickle down can go to is fifth place. But unless Coast or Beach can make the top four, only pool winners will be guaranteed of qualifying and it may come down to the third-place match. If either Beach or Coast can get into the top four then bracket play won’t impact who qualifies. If both Beach and Coast get into the top four, then it puts the fifth-place match into play for the last bid. As for Day 2 pool play, Seal Beach had a big day in upsetting SG Elite to finish 2-1 and advance from Pool 1. Pool 2 held to form, with Coast and Drive Nation moving on. Pool 3 was a bit more complicated. AZ Storm held seed as the top team in going 3-0. But Momentous, Tx Performance 16s and AZ Rev 16 Premier tied at 1-2. Momentous – which fell to AZ Rev after defeating Tx Performance – grabbed the tiebreaker edge for second

The Red Rock Rave in Las Vegas is in full swing. When the three-day tournament concludes you can check back at vballrecruiter.com for a substantial list of the top individual performers we saw in action. A few notable players that we’re very likely to have more on is TAV 15 Black middle blocker Kennedy Washington, Drive Nation 15 Red outsides Karli Jordan and Lauryn Mack, as well as AZ Storm 15 Thunder outside Teraya Sigler. Drive Nation 16 Red also had a pair of standouts in middle Zoe Gillen-Malveaux and outside Suli Davis, while Momentous 16 Dan libero Annah Legaspi flashed some of her skills. For now though, here are some thoughts below on how the opening day in Vegas played out. It Was A Great Day To Be No. 1 The top-seeded teams in their respective pools had near universal success in 15, 16 and 17 Open. Combined, the top teams in each pool went 72-5 across the three divisions. The best results came in 16 Open, where seven of the top eight Nos. 1 teams went 3-0. The lone exception? That was Momentous 16 Dan, which went 2-1. Momentous was in a three-team pool and fell to Drive Nation 16 Red in the 1 v 2 contest. Momentous bounced back to down Aspire 16 Premier in crossover play. In 17 Open, eight of the 10 Nos. 1 teams didn’t drop a match in going 3-0. AsicsWillowbrook 17 Gold had a tough day, finishing 1-2 as the top team in Pool 8. However, Willowbrook avoided being the sole No. 1 team in its respective pool to be eliminated on Day 1 across the three Open divisions. The format in 17 Open afforded four teams to work their way back into contention. Willowbrook took advantage by defeating both Club Cactus 17-Mizuno and Vision 17 Gold in one-game playoffs to remain alive. Supernova 17 All-Stars, Club V 17 Ren Matthew and Forza1 17 UA also won challenge brackets to stay in the mix.   OJVA 17-1 Gold was part of a three-team Pool 9 and went 1-1. It lost to A4 Volley 17 Joaco before beating Flyers 17 APX in the crossover to finish 2-1. Six of the eight top teams in their respective pools went 3-0 in 15 Open. Tstreet 15 Curtis and Vision 15 Gold both went 2-1. Tstreet lost in Pool 3 to Club V 15 Adam in the 1 v 2 match as Club V finished 3-0. Vision fell to Aspire 15 Premier, also in the 1 v 2 meeting. Aspire ended the day 3-0. *** Moving On Up Busting out as a No. 3 or 4 team in any of the Open pools proved difficult on Day 1. In fact, it didn’t happen at all in 15 Open. United 15 Arete was the only No. 4 team to break rank when it went 1-2 in Pool 5. The rest of the No. 4 teams all went 0-3. Three teams broke through in 16 Open to move upward and onward. OJVA 16-1 Gold was the No. 3 team in Pool 4 and finished 2-1 to advance. Club V 16 Ren Matt, in Pool 5, was another No. 3 team that went 2-1 and advanced. The biggest mover was from Pool 6. ABQ Juniors 16 Daniel – a No. 4 team – survived its day by going 2-1 and taking second in beating a pair of California clubs in Viper 16-1 Mauro and OMNI 16 John. In 17 Open, the pool of the day was Pool 8, which featured Willowbrook. While Willowbrook survived through challenge play, No. 2 in the pool Arizona Storm 17 Thunder went 0-3 and was knocked out. That meant the Nos. 3 and 4 teams in the pool both advanced without any help. Tx Performance 17s went 3-0 to become the only No. 4 team to make it to the top pools on Day 2 without any challenge help. Rev 17-1 Raptors was 2-1 as the No. 3 team. They were among five teams to break ranks and move on from the lower side of the pool. Legacy 17 Girls Pyramid (Pool 1), AVA TX 17 Adidas (Pool 3) and Mizuno Long Beach 17 Rockstar (Pool 4) all went 2-1 as the No. 3 team in their respective pools. Final Thoughts I spent the day watching 15 and 16 Open exclusively. The top contenders all played like it in 15 Open. Salt Lake City champ AZ Storm 15 Thunder didn’t drop a set as the top seed. I watched both TAV 15 Black and Drive Nation 15 Red – which has its bid already – for the first times this season. Neither dropped a set and looked like they’ll be there at the end fighting with Storm for top honors. I also caught Vision 15 Gold for the first time. As I mentioned above, Vision went 2-1 as the top team in Pool 7. I had Vision as a team to watch out for coming off its performance at PNQ. There, Vision defeated top-seeded Surfside PV 15 Legends on Day 2 as Surfside failed to advance. That was a notable because Surfside has been the best 15s team in So Cal during Premier Volleyball League competition so far but Aspire played well in sweeping and winning its pool. Aspire tied for seventh in Salt Lake City but perhaps could make some noise if it can keep going like it played on Day 1. One match I was keeping an eye on was in Pool 4 in 15 Open between Excel 15 National Red and Wave 15 Scott. Excel, the No. 4 seed overall, looked vulnerable in beating SynergyForce 15 Rheann in three games in the 1 v 4 meeting. But, Excel played strongly against Wave in the 1 v 2 contest and swept handily to win the pool. Excel just missed a bid in Salt Lake City where it finished in fourth place. AZ Rev 15 Premier went 3-0 as the top team

The SCVA’s Red Rock Rave takes place Saturday-Monday in Las Vegas. vballrecruiter.com is going to be in attendance for the event. Below, we take a look at 15-17 Open and make our predictions for the division and bid winners. 15 Open Number of Teams: 32 Number of Bids: 3 Previously Qualified Teams (2): Arizona Storm 15 Thunder; Drive Nation 15 Red Thoughts: Arizona Storm 15 Thunder, which won Salt Lake City, was an easy pick for the top seed. TAV 15 Black was a solid pick for the No. 2 seed. TAV did not play at Triple Crown and is making its qualifier debut. I do think No. 3 Tstreet 15 Curtis is perhaps over seeded. Aspire 15 Premier, seeded No. 9, and ARVC 15 Adidas, seeded 11, both finished ahead of Tstreet at Salt Lake City. So did Excel 15 National Red, which came in fourth in Salt Lake and is seeded one spot behind Tstreet. Drive Nation 15 Red is the No. 6 seed and already has its bid after coming in second at Northern Lights. That’s a little low of a starting seed for that team. I fully expect Storm and Drive Nation to be top-five finishers, so that should impact trickle down. Missing from the field is Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar, which came in second at Salt Lake and finished first at PNQ. Beach likely could’ve expanded trickle down to the top six if it were here. The seeding will play itself out though because no Day 1 pool is overloaded so it’s unlikely any contenders fall out because of it after Day 1. The pools appear balanced overall. Vision 15 Gold, seeded No. 7, is a team to watch. Vision defeated Surfside 15 Legends at PNQ last weekend. Surfside was the top seed there and considered the best team in the 15s in So Cal. Predictions: How do you go against a Storm-TAV final? The question is who wins? We’ll take TAV over Storm, with TAV obviously getting its bid. The other two bid winners will be Excel and Vision. *** 16 Open Number of Teams: 30 Number of Bids: 3 Previously Qualified Teams (2): Coast 16-1; Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar Thoughts: With only Coast 16-1 and Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar – which qualified last weekend at PNQ – having bids, it means finishing no worse than fifth place to qualify and that’s obviously only if Coast and Beach finish in the top five. We’ll see what Rockstar has in the tank after competing in Spokane last weekend. Coast earned its bid at Salt Lake, where it beat Arizona Storm 16 Thunder for the final bid. Coast opens as the No. 2 overall seed. Storm is No. 3. Wave 16 Brennan, making its qualifier debut, is the top seed. Wave, by finishing tied for 5th at Triple Crown, had the best showing of in team in the field in Kansas City. SG Elite 16 Rosh just missed qualifying this past weekend at PNQ, coming in fourth. The club starts seeded No. 8 overall. City Volleyball 16 Gold is the No. 4 seed and definitely figures to be in the mix on the final day. We’re not too sure about TX Performance 16s, which is the No. 5 Seed. Beach is seeded No. 6 with Momentous VBC 16 Dan at No. 7 and another club which could be in contention for a bid in gold pools. It’s hard to say where this field stacks up against the Salt Lake field but it’s probably a bit stronger overall. There’s no guarantee Coast or Beach help create any trickle down, so teams should go in thinking they need to finish top three to get a bid. Predictions: The only call I’m confident in making is Wave getting its bid. In fact, that’s my pick to win it all is Wave over Storm in the final. As for the remaining bid, I think San Gabriel finds a way to get it done. *** 17 Open Number of Teams: 38 Number of Bids: 3 Previously Qualified Teams (4): Club V 17 Ren Reed; Drive Nation 17 Red; AZ Rev 17 Premier; ID Crush 17 Bower Thoughts: Club V 17 Ren Reed is the top seed but it’s second-seeded Drive Nation 17 Red who should be viewed as the favorite to win the tournament even after playing this past weekend and qualifying at MEQ. Both are qualified and along with AZ Rev 17 Premier are likely to create some sort of trickle down. ID Crush 17 Bower is the fourth qualified team after gaining its bid this past weekend at PNQ, but while I expect Club V, Drive and AZ Rev to be in the top six overall when it’s all settled, Crush is right there on the border. I’m not sure Crush can crack the top six, so I don’t foresee Crush being involved in trickle down though Crush could make the top eight and play in the gold pools. Club V, AZ Rev and Crush were all at Salt Lake City. So was Coast 17-1, Sunshine 17 LA, AsicsWillowbrook 17 Gold, Aspire 17 Premier, Arizona Storm 17 Thunder and Excel 17 National Red, plus a few more, so there’s familiarity there. The biggest name club making its qualifier debut is Wave 17 Julianna and absolutely figures to factor into the qualifying race. Predictions: If there were no qualified teams, it would be very difficult to pick the three teams which would emerge with bids. But I’m going with a So Cal sweep – Coast, Sunshine and Wave all pick up Open bids this weekend. As for the overall winner, I’m picking Drive Nation over Coast in the final.