The bid recap stories featured AZ Storm 15 Thunder, Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar and Austin Skyline 15 Royal. Here, I take a look at some other points of interests from 15 Open.
LOOKING AT THE SEEDINGS
As we said with 17 and 16 Open, any qualifier this early in the season poses challenges when it comes to seeding. It’s hard to do with limited results. The most shocking development in this regard from Salt Lake was Day 1 top seed Absolute Black 15-1 not breaking pool on Day 2 and being eliminated. Absolute, by virtue of finishing third at Triple Crown, was a solid choice to open as the top seed but didn’t look sharp Friday or Saturday and paid the price. Of the eight No. 1 teams in their respective Day 1 pools Skyline 15 Royal and AZ Sky 15 Gold joined Absolute in not reaching the final eight. Those three spots went to Aspire 15 Premier (seeded No. 11 to start), Excel 15 National Red (seeded No. 12) and ARVC 15 Adidas (seeded No. 13). Compared to some of the things we saw in 16 and 17 Open, there wasn’t much to note outside of what happened to Absolute.
BOOK THOSE OPEN SPOTS
With only three bids to award, surely more teams from the Salt Lake field will gain Open spots as qualifying season continues. Here are the teams I feel like are locks to make it:
Absolute Black 15-1: The feeling here is that placing third at Triple Crown and then being seeded No. 1 overall at Salt Lake put a target on Absolute’s back that the team wasn’t quite ready for. Teams were coming hard for Absolute, which seemed to struggle with its passing and ball control and didn’t really look in sync the first two days when watching them. Absolute will be better in the long run as it should learn plenty from Salt Lake. Elena Fisher is who Absolute seems to turn to on the outside when things break down. She’s got some springs to her but it’s asking a lot for her to carry the offense. Setter Julia Waller does look to get her middles involved in Isabella Ehrlich and Monika Brinlee as often as possible but looked like their timing was slightly off. Regardless, it would be shocking if Absolute doesn’t put it together and get its Open bid at some point.
Excel 15 National Red: A lot of Excel teams tend to be smaller, scrappier teams. This Excel squad scraps but appears to have some more size than usual. It’s a strong front row when outside Halle Jameson and right side Jordyn Moore or paired with either middle in Catherine Warren or Aubrey Bellus. Moore also sets in the back row, with Keely Harrington the other back row setter. One thing that stood out about the group is they seem to play well together and are in sync with each other. Excel beat out Madfrog in a key victory on Day 3 to earn its shot at qualifying in the third-place match but just couldn’t find a way to get past Austin Skyline for a second time.
Madfrog 15 Green: Madfrog was a victory away from playing for a bid but fell to Excel in the last match of gold pool play and finished third in the pool. Madfrog has good height in the middle with Olivia Wayne and Kylee McCoy, as well as right sides Anna Barr and Naya Salfiti, who also sets in the back row. It gives them a big right side block plus nice options for setters Sophia Wei and London Upchurch, who also have outsides Morgan VanVoorhis and Karson Barclow to work with. Madeleine Smotherman helps out defensively at libero. Like other 15s teams this time of season, Madfrog struggled with consistency. It lost to Aspire 25-12, 25-21, but then showed well against eventual champ AZ Storm the next day, losing 26-24, 25-23. Once Madfrog gets dialed in a little more and isn’t as up and down it’ll get its Open bid.
Alamo 15 Premier: I didn’t see Alamo as much as I would’ve liked but I did see some of the pieces it has. Megan Fitch is legit on the outside and go-to attacker for them. Aniya Hall gets up quick in the middle and can run the slide efficiently. Setter Kaia Thiele was part of a 6-2 on Day 1 but was running a 5-1 on the final day. Alamo was 6-0 until running into Austin Skyline to open gold pools Saturday evening. Alamo defeated Austin Skyline at Triple Crown but couldn’t repeat the feat. Alamo then swept Aspire and needed to beat AZ Storm to get into a three-way tie. Alamo fell to Storm in three, becoming the only team to take a set off of Storm all weekend.
ON THE RADAR
Here are a few other clubs to keep an eye on who could gain Open bids down the road:
Aspire 15 Premier: Aspire had a strong start to the tournament by wining five in a row, including beating Madfrog 15 Green to end Day 1 and AZ Sky 15 Gold on Day 2. But Aspire lost its final Round 2 pool match to ARVC 15 Adidas and lost its final four matches, including all three gold pool contests against AZ Storm, Alamo and Austin Skyline. Avery Boothe is a tall presence on the right side for Aspire, which also relies a lot on outside Alyssa Aguayo. This team is going to have to find a way to make up some ground against the stronger teams and if so could potentially play its way into the Open field.
Skyline 15 Royal: I didn’t see a lot of Skyline either but outside Alexandra Richter was a player of note with her length at outside. She seems to be a real weapon for them. Middle Kaelynn Sims gets off the ground very well and will line up and swing from the left in that rotation. Skyline lost its last match of Day 1 to ARVC then went 0-3 against Coast, AZ Storm and Madfrog in Round 2 pool and didn’t advance.
ARVC 15 Adidas: ARVC managed to work its way into gold pools but finished 0-3 to Madfrog, Excel and Long Beach. A definite bright spot the team is the outside duo of Cecilia Vance and Tea Kalajdzic.
