It was a great beginning to the year on the prediction front. Last weekend, we predicted five of the six eventual bid winners. We picked 1st Alliance 18 Gold to take first place at Windy City, which the club did by beating City 18 Gold. We also predicted Vision 18 Gold taking third place and qualifying in Chicago, which also happened. As for the Kansas City MLK 18s, we picked Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite to top KC Power 18 Black in the final, but it played out in reverse with KC Power beating Rockwood Thunder. We also called Premier Nebraska 18 Gold finishing third and qualifying.
That brings us to this weekend’s qualifier – the Lone Star Classic 18s. As expected, it’s heavy on the Texas teams and that always makes for fierce competition and intense action. We’ll see how we do with our picks this weekend, which you can find below, as well as nationally-ranked teams competing, 4 and 5-star recruits in the field and a short breakdown of the field.
LONE STAR CLASSIC 18s
Number of Teams: 16
Number of Bids: 3
Previously-Qualified Teams: n/a
vballrecruiter.com Nationally-Ranked Clubs (9):
- 1. TAV 18 Black TX
- 4. Hou Skyline 18 Royal TX
- 8. Madfrog 18 Green TX
- 11. Coast 18-1 CA
- 21. HJV 18 Elite TX
- 23. AJV 18 Adidas TX
- 25. Skyline 18 Royal TX
- 26. OT 18 O Roberto FL
- 48. MAVS KC 18-1 KS
vballrecruiter.com 5-star Players to Know:
- Favor Anyanwu MB TAV 18 Black (USC)
- Jadyn Livings RS TAV 18 Black (USC)
- Camille Edwards S TAV 18 Black (Michigan)
- Jaela Auguste MB Hou Skyline 18 Royal (Florida)
- Suli Davis OH TAV 18 Black (2025, BYU)
- Cari Spears OH TAV 18 Black (2025, Texas)
- Gillian Pitts L/DS TAV 18 Black (2025, Houston)
- Kirra Musgrove S/RS Hou Skyline 18 Royal (2025, Texas AM)
- Samara Coleman OH Hou Skyline 18 Royal (2025, Pitt)
- Jaidyn Jager OH Coast 18-1 (Indiana)
vballrecruiter.com 4-star Players to Know:
- Carson Eickenloff S TAV 18 Black (Ole Miss)
- Mikala Young OH TAV 18 Black (TCU)
- Anna Boatner MB TAV 18 Black (UCSB)
- Reese Animashaun OH Hou Skyline 18 Royal (Vanderbilt)
- McKenna Brand L/DS Skyline 18 Royal (UCONN)
- Lolo Lambert OH Madfrog 18 Green (Arkansas)
- Kennedy Washington MB Madfrog 18 Green
- Lillian Croshaw MB Madfrog 18 Green (Illinois State)
- Fallon Stewart OH OT 18 O Roberto (Cincinnati)
- Juleigh Urbina S OT 18 O Roberto (Georgetown)
- Savannah Skopal S AJV 18 Adidas (Rice)
- Alice Volpe L/DS HJV 18 Elite (TCU)
Outlook: The two fields for last weekend’s 18s qualifiers were both 22 teams. At 16, this weekend’s field is smaller and just has enough teams to award three bids. With no teams qualified, the path to getting one of them is straight forward as clubs must finish in the top three to earn theirs. Teams will be fighting to make the four-team gold bracket on Sunday, with the top three teams from that final group qualifying. The event is Texas-heavy on teams and that favors clubs like TAV, Hou Skyline, Skyline, Madfrog and HJV to bring home the bids. However, MAVS KC finished fourth last week in Kansas City and should factor in. Coast and OT are two more out-of-state clubs to watch for as both could get into the top three as well.
Prediction: We’re not getting radical here and are playing it safe by picking TAV to take home the gold by beating Madfrog in the final. Hou Skyline tops Coast for the third and the final bid.
