The Bluegrass Tournament was one of many during the opening weekend of March. A KiVA team winning there is a regular and frequent occurrence. It certainly doesn’t shake up the volleyball world the way a KiVA team winning a national qualifier does!
When a team like Adidas KiVA 16 Red – ranked No. 23 in vballrecruiter.com’s Top 50 National Rankings – finished first at its home event earlier this month, it was a sign the team could be finding its groove. But coming to Indy presented not only much stiffer competition but a scenario where what would KiVA do should it be in position to accept a bid? KiVA hasn’t participated in a USAV national championship since 2005.
Yet, with KiVA in contention on the final day a decision would need to be made should KiVA keep advancing. After beating both No. 16 Legacy 16-1 Adidas and No. 43 No Name 16 Sarah, KiVA made the four-team gold bracket. Not long after, so did No. 18 Tribe 16 Elite Cardinal. With Tribe already owning a bid, KiVA – along with No. 11 Circle City 16 Purple and No. 14 MKE Sting 16 Gold – already knew their fates. All three were assured of bids before playing another match.
When KiVA coaches confirmed they were accepting the Open bid, a bit of history was made! KiVA is back in a USAV national championship. But, it gets even better. Not only did KiVA qualify, KiVA wasn’t done yet, downing both Tribe and Circle City to finish in first place.
KiVA lost on Day 1 to unranked Boiler Jrs 16 Gold and then started Day 2 with a setback to No. 12 Mich Elite 16 Mizuno. KiVA was facing possible elimination in its next match but upset No. 8 A5 16 Gabe and eventually moved on when Mich Elite beat A5. KiVA didn’t lose again, riding its Bluegrass victory to an even bigger triumph in Indy!
KiVA open the gold bracket by fending off Tribe in three, 23-25, 25-18, 15-9, before tackling Circle City in the final, 25-23, 28-26. Circle City held off MKE Sting in three, 25-22, 22-25, 15-8, in the other semifinal.
Much credit goes to KiVA for turning it on since finishing 58th at Triple Crown last month. It was a tough ending in Kansas City after a promising Day 1 started with victories over Austin Skyline 16 Royal and Madfrog 16 Green. But KiVA was upset by unranked SA Magic 16 Elite to start Day 2 then lost to both AVA TX 16 Adidas and Tulsa Power 16-1 in succession to tumble down the standings.
KiVA did lose on Day 1 at Bluegrass to Tri-State Elite 16 Blue in three and picked up key victories over AVC Cle 16 Red and SPVB 16 Elite there as well. While a strong showing, expecting KiVA to make a leap in such a short time like it did at MEQ wouldn’t be fair but what an accomplishment nonetheless.
Sting’s qualifying chances hinged on a showdown with Mich Elite for first in their gold pool. Both were 1-0 and needed to win to have any shot at qualifying. Circle City took care of its business, sweeping both Adrenaline 16 Doug and Co Jrs 16 Shannon in its gold pool to advance.
As for 17 Open, Co Jrs 17 Kevin’s time in Indy could have hardly gone any better. Ranked No. 8 nationally, Co Jrs is proving itself as a Top-10 team with another impressive performance on a big stage.
After tying for fifth at last month’s Triple Crown NIT, Co Jrs’ next national act featured going 10-0 and claiming gold at MEQ. There was not much resistance as Co Jrs swept its way through the first two days of competition before a thrilling Day 3 concluded with gold-medalist Co Jrs being one of three teams to earn bids.
The way the drama was playing out offered two paths to qualifying. The straight forward and guaranteed one was reaching the gold bracket. The much riskier one with nothing assured was through the fifth-place bracket.
This is what both Co Jrs and No. 37 Elevation 17 Ulland faced as they were going toe-to-toe for first place in Gold Pool 2. The winner was assured a bid because previously-qualified and second-ranked Dynasty 17 Black had already captured first place in its gold pool. But it was not an elimination match as Elevation and Co Jrs would still have another shot at qualifying should they finish second in the pool.
That route came courtesy of No. 5 Triangle 17 Black, which even though was entering a third set of its own against No. 21 Academy 17 Tsunami had already clinched first place based on tiebreakers should Triangle lose. More on why this result still mattered in a moment.
With both Dynasty and Triangle reaching the gold bracket, the final remaining bid would go to the team finishing fifth and the only way to determine that was to a have a four-team playoff between the second-place gold-pool finishers.
Co Jrs squeaked out its victory over Elevation, 23-25, 25-17, 15-13, and joined 1st Alliance 17 Gold in bidding. 1st Alliance was actually the first team to learn its fate after downing both No. 9 NKYVC 17-1 Tsunami and No. 48 Pohaku 17-1 in its gold pool and thus earning its bid once Dynasty won its pool.
Once Triangle advanced to the gold bracket with Dynasty, it made every other result relevant as it gave life to the second-place teams. That meant Pohaku beating NKYVC was huge, as Pohaku was still in it. So was Elevation. But unfortunately for Academy it was not. That’s because Academy needed to sweep Triangle in order to advance. Instead, No. 41 Boiler Jrs 17 Gold beating Academy the match prior was huge because Boiler Jrs was part of the fifth-place bracket, which also included No. 17 KC Power 17 Black.
Back to Co Jrs for a moment.
The only teams to beat Co Jrs at Triple Crown were Drive Nation 17 Red and 1st Alliance 17 Gold. Those already stood as quality losses but look even better after Drive Nation took first place two weekends ago at the Red Rock Rave and 1st Alliance finished tied for third this weekend at MEQ.
Co Jrs picked up huge victories in closing out its run in Indy, first by outlasting Triangle in three, 21-25, 25-23, 15-13, before sweeping Dynasty in the final, 25-16, 25-23. We’ll be releasing our updated 17s Top 50 National Rankings next week, so it’ll be interesting to see how these latest results impact the changes.
With two bids decided for sure, there was still the matter of the last one. Pohaku swept KC Power and Boiler Jrs swept Elevation in matches that weren’t that close. That changed when Pohaku and Boiler Jrs clashed for fifth. Boiler Jrs snuck out ahead, 22-25, 25-17, 15-12, to gain its bid.
It was a big breakthrough for Boiler Jrs. The club showed signs at Triple Crown, where it split matches with Coast 17-1. Coast qualified recently at Red Rock. Boiler Jrs also earned a victory over Momentous 17 Dan at Triple Crown, where Momentous wound up fifth.
But the one club that has had Boiler Jrs’ number has been Academy Tsunami. Boiler Jrs entered Sunday’s clash 1-4 against Academy and another loss would have knocked Boiler Jrs from bid contention. However, Boiler Jrs pulled out the intense victory in three, 25-21, 27-29, 15-13, then held out hope that Triangle would beat Academy too and would keep Boiler Jrs in it.
