One previously-qualified team was gone after Day 1. Another was done after Day 2. That left Vision 16 Gold as the only team with a bid still in contention come Day 3. That also set the stage for an exciting conclusion to the bid chase as seven teams were still in the hunt on the last day of Far Western in Reno. While Vision went on to capture the championship by beating Hou Skyline 16 Royal and SG Elite 16 Rosh knew its bid was secured, it was a wild ride for the last bid winner in OJVA 16-1 Gold. Below, we share the details of their weekends.
VISION 16 GOLD (FIRST, 10-0)
- Day 1: d Encore 16 25-20, 25-21; d Ka Ulukoa 16 Black 25-10, 25-15; d Club V 16 Ren Matt 25-18, 26-24
- Day 2: d SynergyForce 16 James 25-21, 26-24; d AZ Epic 16 Mike 25-13, 25-13; d OJVA 16-1 Gold 25-21, 25-13
- Day 3: d Momentous 16 Dan 25-17, 25-22; d NE Elite 16 Lohaki 25-18, 25-18; d SG Elite 16 Rosh 22-25, 25-22, 15-13; d Hou Skyline 16 Royal 25-20, 28-26
Having already qualified in early April at the Red Rock Rave in Las Vegas, there wasn’t much on the line as Vision wrapped up its qualifying schedule this past weekend at Far Western in Reno. It didn’t keep the NCVA club from playing like the stakes were high however. Vision posted a perfect 10-0 mark and dropped just one set on its way to earning the 16 Open championship. The run ended with a sweep of Hou Skyline in the final.
“The girls played well,” Vision coach Ron Whitmill said. “Winning a qualifier, some of it is luck and some of it is playing well at the right times. We got into a groove and played well. We switched the lineup a little bit after getting a bid. We thought we needed some work on it and that it would be better for us. That lineup came together.”
In between Vegas and Reno, Vision ventured to Lone Star in Dallas. It was a learning lesson for Vision, which lost two of three on Day 1 and didn’t break pool.
“I think it really helped us,” Whitmill said. “We didn’t play poorly. We just had one bad match and it happened to be the first match of the tournament. That cost us in terms of being able to move forward. That was definitely the message. We need to learn to show up and that we can’t take Day 1 for granted.”
Vision showed up all three days in Reno. It swept its first eight outings before needing three sets to fend off SG Elite in its final gold pool match. That propelled Vision into the final where it was able to remain unbeaten for the weekend.
Freshman setter Maya Baker was her usual standout self. Whitmill praised her ability to command the offense and get the most out of it. One of the changes was moving Cleo Hardin opposite of Baker and playing Katelyn Cook at outside instead of right side. Taylor Williams remained at outside and had a strong weekend too. Amiya Kucibhotia and Briley Lackey were part of the middle attack while Michael Torkaman was her usual steady self at libero.
“We’re probably not the favorite but I think we can beat any of the teams out there,” Whitmill said. “I think we are the furthest away from our ceiling. We are just scratching the surface. We could be really dangerous.
“I’m pleased with the team how much they have improved at a national level. We double-qualified this year. That hasn’t happened often out of our region recently. It’s been a long journey to get to this point. Things haven’t come easy for this group. It’s been hard.”
***
HOU SKYLINE 16 ROYAL (SECOND, 7-4)
- Day 1: d A4 Volley 16 Purple 25-27, 25-23, 15-12; l SynergyForce 16 James 25-22, 25-23; d NNJ 16 Nate 23-25, 25-17, 15-9; l OJVA 16-1 Gold 25-21, 24-26, 15-13
- Day 2: l SG Elite 16 Rosh 25-14, 25-19; d Temecula Viper 16 25-21, 25-22; d A4 Volley 16 Purple 25-22, 25-22
- Day 3: d Rocky 16 National 25-21, 25-20; d Absolute Black 16-1 25-20, 12-25, 18-16; d OJVA 16-1 Gold 25-16, 24-26, 15-11; l Vision 16 Gold 25-20, 28-26
Needing to qualify in Reno, Hou Skyline was off to a rocky start. The Lone Star Region club ended in a three-way tie at 1-1 in its opening pool. It took third and was forced into a must-win crossover just to remain in contention. While Hou Skyline prevailed in that one, it lost its next two matches and was sitting at 2-3 overall before finding its stride. By finishing the rest of the weekend winning five of its next six contests, Hou Skyline not only secured its bid it ended runner up to Vision with a second-place showing.
“I thought it went well,” Hou Skyline coach Ashley Williams said of the weekend. “We’ve been focusing a lot in practice on our serving and serve receive. I thought we did a good job staying consistent. We like to call them our three littles in Keely McNeill, Mykayla McMillian and Macy McPartland, they really held it down throughout the weekend and we were able to run our offense through our setter Cayley Hanson. Reese Animashaun and Morgan Warren were our big terminators and we stayed in system a lot.”
After Day 1 ended with a loss to OJVA and Day 2 opened with a setback to SG Elite, Hou Skyline didn’t lose again until facing Vision in the final. The team turned in a strong Day 3 performance in gold pool to clinch its bid. It featured victories over Rocky 16 National, Absolute Black 16-1 and payback against OJVA. The last two triumphs came in three sets and the team definitely knew the stakes of playing OJVA once more.
“Match three of Day 3, we were about to play OJVA and we knew if we won we would for sure have our bid,” Williams said. “If we lost, we could’ve ended up in a tie. We wanted to control our own destiny and not leave it up to chance.”
It appeared Hou Skyline took a big step forward two weeks ago when it finished in the top 10 at Lone Star. It provided a boost of confidence that led to the team feeling good about its chances of getting it done this past weekend in Reno.
“We talked about qualifying pretty extensively,” Williams said. “We’ve been on an uptick. We’ve been getting a lot stronger.”
***
SAN GABRIEL ELITE 16 ROSH (THIRD, 9-1)
- Day 1: d FRVBC 16 Black 25-17, 25-16; d Rocky 16 National 23-25, 25-17, 15-9; d NorCal 16-1 Black 25-13, 25-13
- Day 2: d Hou Skyline 16 Royal 25-14, 25-19; d A4 Volley 16 Purple 25-18, 25-21; d Temecula Viper 16 25-23, 25-19
- Day 3: d NE Elite 16 Lohaki 25-15, 25-23; d Momentous 16 Dan 25-21, 25-22; l Vision 16 Gold 22-25, 25-22, 15-13; d OJVA 16-1 Gold 25-14, 25-12
San Gabriel headed to Reno without an insurance policy. The choice was made to forgo the SCVA Regional bid tournament the same weekend in hopes of earning an Open bid at Far Western.
In an all or nothing quest for the bid, SG was triumphant. The moment of celebration came after SG defeated Momentous 16 Dan – which was 3-0 against SG so far on the season – in its second gold pool match to clinch a spot in the top four. SG then became the only squad to take a set off of eventual tournament winner Vision in its last gold match before going on to down OJVA for third place.
“I’m very proud of them,” SG coach Hannah Tedrow said. “It was surreal right after (qualifying). The girls came in with a common goal and they did what we came to do. We had a brief meeting two weeks before we left about whether they wanted to come here or not. They said they wanted to go to Reno to get an Open bid and they did.”
Perhaps no team this season has experienced qualifier heartbreak the way SG did in March. At PNQ, SG lost the third-place match to Madfrog 16 Green in a third set that went to 20-18. That’s how close the SCVA club was to already earning its bid.
SG next traveled to Las Vegas for the Red Rock Rave but took a pair of losses on Day 2 and was knocked from contention. That left Reno as the final destination to qualify. SG performed like a group on a mission. It dropped just one set through the first two days in positioning itself closer to a bid. Though there was clearly pressure to qualify SG did its best to focus on executing the game plans and let the results fall where they may.
“I think they did a really nice job of executing the scouting reports,” Tedrow said. “As coaches, we try and do our best relaying information to them and it’s their job to execute and they did. Simple wins. I told them we don’t have to do anything extra. What we do is enough. They are starting to realize that.”
Setter and five-star recruit Taylor Yu is one of the best in the class. Early in the season SG was using her to set and hit but recently has been letting her run a 5-1. Another strength is the backcourt SG deploys with libero Lauren Lynch and DS Tinoa Woodward-Hart. SG is not a big team offensively but has smart hitters across the board in outsides Helena Foord and Deanna Dollar, right side Haley Clark – a three-star recruit – and middles Ingrid Zahn and Cyanne Jones.
“This weekend was not because of one or two kids,” Tedrow said. “We are all there for each other and we all encourage and lean on each other. That’s the reason we were so successful. I’m excited to see us get back to work and fine tune things. This team continues to get better. We are going to keep building. We haven’t peaked yet.”
***
OJVA 16-1 GOLD (FOURTH, 7-4)
- Day 1: d NCVC 16-1 Blue 25-15, 25-16; d City 16 Gold 25-19, 25-22; d Hou Skyline 16 Royal 25-21, 24-26, 15-13
- Day 2: d SynergyForce 16 James 25-20, 25-22; l Vision 16 Gold 25-21, 25-13; l AZ Epic 16 Elite 19-25, 27-25, 15-7
- Day 3: d Absolute Black 16-1 25-23, 25-23; l Rocky 16 National 25-21, 25-20; l Hou Skyline 16 Royal 25-16, 24-26, 15-11; d Rocky 16 National 15-12; d Absolute 16 Black 15-9; l SG Elite 16 Rosh 25-14, 25-12
Did OJVA qualify or not? That was the question being debated for nearly thirty minutes after the conclusion of its gold pool. OJVA finished in three-way tie with Absoluteand Rocky National 1-2. The tiebreaker rules were not explicitly known and that’s where all the confusion started.
OJVA and Absolute were tied on set percentage, both ahead of Rocky. There was a line of thinking where that would eliminate Rocky and give OJVA second place based on its head-to-head result against Absolute. It was a scene to be sure.
San Gabriel had begun warming up for the third-place match. So did OJVA. All while Absolute players sat on the court and sidelines awaiting the final word. The answer to the tiebreaker was two rounds of one-game playoffs to 15.
That was not the news OJVA was expecting to receive. Both Absolute and Rocky were happy to have another shot while OJVA had to get over its disappointment and regroup quickly. Fortunately for OJVA, it all worked itself out in the end. OJVA defeated Rocky National first then followed by topping Absolute to officially clinch its Open bid.
“The pool was such a mess,” OJVA coach Terri Jo Schlatter said. “To have to do a playoff, they were mad. They were mad they didn’t get it outright. At the same time, it was still a great opportunity. They came out ready to go. They found the energy. We told them to go after it. We told them to go play to win.”
It was not the only tiebreaker OJVA was part of.
Day 2 pool play wound up with OJVA in a three-way tie with SynergyForce 16 James and AZ Epic 16 Elite at 1-2. That scenario was much simpler to determine. OJVA finished with the highest set percentage and advanced as the No. 2 team.
OJVA opened Day 3 with a key victory over Absolute in straight sets. It lost its next two outings to Rocky National and Hou Skyline to help create the infamous three-way tie. It was the first time a 16s team from the club ever qualified for Open.
One of the key members of the team is freshman outside Sydney Dreves. She helps fill out the lineup along with outside Emily Fulton, middles Hailey Heytvelt and Brooke Williams and right sides Thanvi Chilukuri and Avery Walunas. Those are all options for setter Elisabeth Levick. Halle Reiter is the team’s libero.
“If you had asked me at the beginning of the year if we would qualify I would have said heck no,” Schlatter said. “I can’t say I went into this tournament actually searching for a bid. I’m sure the girls did. To me, it was a slow build and as we got closer to it, it was like let’s go after it.”
