Arizona Storm 15 Thunder made it two-for-two on the season. After winning and qualifying by taking first at the Salt Lake City Showdown last month, Storm was back at the Red Rock Rave in Las Vegas and was just as dominate. Storm lost just one set in both Salt Lake and Vegas, where Storm went 10-0 and bested the 32-team field. Storm topped upstart Tstreet 15 Curtis. While Storm had another outstanding outing, we want to focus on the teams that qualified in this story. Tstreet was one along with TAV 15 Black and Wave 15 Scott joining in on the bid action. Here’s how their weekends played out.
TSTREET 15 CURTIS (SECOND, 5-5)
- Day 1: d Laguna Beach 15 Mark 25-7, 25-9; d APAC 15 Courtney 25-10, 25-10; l Club V 15 Ren Adam 25-23, 25-23
- Day 2: l Aspire 15 Premier 25-19, 21-25, 17-15; l AZ Storm 15 Thunder 25-22, 25-16; d Rage Westside 15 Jen 25-12, 29-27; d Club V 15 Ren Adam 25-16, 25-13
- Day 3: l Wave 15 Scott 25-16, 23-25, 15-13; d Drive Nation 15 Red 25-22, 25-15; l AZ Storm 15 Thunder 25-12, 25-10
Most know the adage. These tournaments are not about the number of matches a team wins but more about winning at the right time. Tstreet 15 Curtis is the perfect example of it. Though Tstreet – which opened as the No. 3 overall seed – finished 5-5 on the weekend, it placed ahead of everyone else not named Arizona Storm. Storm downed Tstreet, 25-12, 25-10, in Monday’s 15 Open final but it didn’t matter much to Tstreet at that point. The bid was in hand and that was anything but a guarantee when the season kicked off months ago.
“It’s a really big deal for us,” Tstreet coach Curtis Yoder said of qualifying. “This is a team early in the season where we weren’t quite sure of how we would measure up in Open. We have a lot of great pieces but we were figuring things out so for us to get a bid is huge.”
One setback early on this season was the loss of setter/right side Ruby Hill to injury but she’s since been back and helped stabilize the rotation running a 6-2 with Sophia Saad in Vegas. Tstreet was also down to two middles before calling up Maya Brown to help out and Yoder praised her play over the weekend. Combined with Memphis Burnett, they provided scoring options out of the middle so Tstreet wasn’t so pin heavy with outsides Quinn Loper and Brianna Brewer, as well as right side Lola Padilla. With Kyra Zaengle at libero, Tstreet also played defense well at times.
“We’ve just been getting better every single day at practice and just chipping away,” Yoder said. “This team has huge upside. I’m excited to get back into the gym and keep working with them.”
Tstreet’s timing helped out tremendously, winning when it needed to. After starting Day 1 by winning its first two matches, Tstreet fell to Club V 15 Ren Adam and was knocked into the same Day 2 pool as Storm. When Tstreet lost to Aspire 15 Premier first and then Storm it was sitting at 0-2 and looking at an exit from contention. However, Tstreet swept Rage Westside 15 Jen in a key result. That forced a three-way tie at 1-2 with Rage and Aspire, but it was Tstreet sweeping Rage that allowed Tstreet to take second and advance. A victory in three sets would’ve obviously still force the three-way tie, but it would’ve been Rage advancing instead in that scenario.
Alive for gold pools, Tstreet capitalized. First, Tstreet downed Club V on Sunday evening in a rematch. But, Tstreet stumbled against Wave and was 1-1 with a clash against Drive Nation 15 Red – a team already qualified – waiting. Tstreet sprung the upset and eventually finished in a three-way tie with Drive Nation and Wave at 2-1. Tstreet owned the first-place tiebreaker to move onto the final and face Storm.
Tstreet still would’ve had a path to the bid had it lost to Drive Nation. Yet, in that scenario Tstreet would have been the third-place team and faced Coast 15-1 for the last bid in the fifth-place match. As it happened, Coast didn’t get that opportunity as trickle down only went to fourth place.
“I thought it was a really good weekend for our team,” Yoder said. “We are learning what it takes to play at this level. We were a little bit fortunate but we did the job to get here to the final. That was not our best match but we were here to see how we measure up against the best in the nation so we can get to work on things and get better.”
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TAV 15 BLACK (THIRD, 8-2)
- Day 1: d Vinaka 15-1 25-12, 25-18; d Over The Top 15 Blue 25-15, 25-11; d SG Elite 15 Rosh 30-28, 25-19
- Day 2: d ARVC 15 Adidas 26-24, 25-15; l Wave 15 Scott 17-25, 25-22, 16-14; d AZ Rev 15 Premier 25-17, 25-23; d Excel 15 National Red 25-20, 25-21
- Day 3: l AZ Storm 15 Thunder 25-19, 25-16; d Coast 15-1 25-21, 25-16; d Wave 15 Scott 20-25, 25-16, 15-11
It’s been a quiet season to date for TAV 15 Black. The North Texas region squad didn’t attend Triple Crown in February and didn’t play in a qualifier in March. That meant TAV was making its first national appearance in Las Vegas. Though TAV accomplished what it came for in qualifying, perhaps expectedly it wasn’t an overly sharp performance.
“I don’t think we played very well all weekend for what our standards are,” TAV coach Arthur Stanfield said. “We struggled. We won matches but we struggled.”
It’s not a knock really. Most everyone knows the lofty expectations of TAV but in reality TAV only lost one match that it probably shouldn’t have. It came on Day 2 when TAV was upset by Wave in three, 17-25, 25-22, 16-14. Though it didn’t derail TAV from making the gold pools, it did take away a rematch of sorts.
“We beat Arizona Storm in the finals here last year and then they beat us in the finals at Nationals,” Stanfield said. “We were hoping to see them again in the finals here.”
TAV had to settle for getting a shot at Storm in gold pool action. Storm swept that match handily, 25-19, 25-16. Yet, victories over Excel 15 National Red and Coast 15-1 propelled TAV into the third-place match and a bid. In that one, TAV did earn a rematch against Wave and delivered some payback in winning in three, 20-25, 25-16, 15-11.
“Whenever you get a bid it’s a successful weekend,” Stanfield said.
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WAVE 15 SCOTT (FOURTH, 6-4)
- Day 1: d SynergyForce 15 Rheann 25-11, 25-10; d Idaho One 15 Blue 25-11, 25-18; l Excel 15 National Red 25-21, 25-17
- Day 2: l AZ Rev 15 Premier 26-24, 18-25, 16-14; d TAV 15 Black 17-25, 25-22, 16-14; d ARVC 15 Adidas 25-21, 25-19; l Drive Nation 15 Red 27-25, 18-25, 15-9
- Day 3: d Tstreet 15 Curtis 25-16, 23-25, 15-13; d Club V 15 Ren Adam 25-17, 31-29; l TAV 15 Black 20-25, 25-16, 15-11
Success hasn’t come as often as Wave 15 Scott would’ve liked this season but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been moments. Wave owns victories over Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar and Drive Nation 15 Red – two teams that already had their bids – but hasn’t performed steady enough and thus entered the Red Rock Rave seeded No. 13 overall.
A journey to the bid was not looking so great though. After falling to Excel to end Day 1, Day 2 opened up with a loss to AZ Rev 15 Premier. With TAV on deck moving on seemed like a longshot. One giant upset later combined with a sweep over ARVC 15 Adidas however had Wave in the gold pools and looking like a team that just might be able to make it happen after all.
Sunday evening saw Wave losing to Drive Nation but that wasn’t necessarily the match Wave needed. Wave bounced back and took care of Tstreet on Monday morning but Tstreet downing Drive Nation put Wave in a must-win scenario against Club V. A victory and Wave would take second and qualify. A loss and Wave would take fourth and lose out at any shot at a bid. Wave swept.
“These were some of the biggest matches these girls have played in,” Wave coach Scott Hartley said. “I don’t think we had the expectations to come in and do what we did. We knew we were capable of being in the top but we just hadn’t proven it yet.”
Lauren Feiler, Keila Gabriel, Mae Kordes, Scarlett McClung, Yuri Park, Nia Thompson and Ava Zamora were all part of the Wave roster that finished tied for 13th in 14 USA a season ago. So this was their first time qualifying for Open with this group.
“It was 30 minutes of pure numbness,” Hartley said of qualifying. “I didn’t believe it at all. I knew these girls haven’t been in this position. We wrote this on our goal board and to see it manifest is more special than I imagined.”
