Club V 17 Ren Reed, Alamo 17 Premier and AZ Rev 17 Premier secured bids during their first qualifying efforts of the season last weekend in Salt Lake City. Here’s a recap on their respective efforts.
Club V 17 Ren Reed (First, 9-1)
- Day 1: d. NPJ Seattle (25-20, 25-16); d. LAVA West (25-11, 25-19); d. AZ Rev 17 Premier (20-25, 25-22, 15-9)
- Day 2: d. Aspire 17 Premier (28-26, 25-15); d. Madfrog 17 Green (25-21, 26-24); d. TVC 17 Black (25-13, 25-13); d. AZ Rev 17 Premier (22-25, 25-10, 19-17)
- Day 3: d. ID Crush 17 Bower (25-20, 25-21); l. Coast 17-1 (23-25, 25-15, 15-12); d. Alamo 17 Premier (26-24, 25-16)
Fortunately for Club V 17 Ren Reed its only blemish at the Salt Lake City Showdown wasn’t as costly as it could’ve been. Club V lost its last gold pool outing to Coast 17-1 in three games but still managed to take first in the pool after Club V, Coast and AZ Rev 17 Premier finished tied at 2-1. Winning one set against Coast gave Club V the tiebreaker edge over the other two teams and a spot in the championship match where Club V came out on top after downing Alamo 17 Premier in straight sets.
“It was a good finish,” Club V coach Reed Carlson said. “We are glad things worked out the way they worked out. It was nice to get it done.”
Missing out on Open last year as a 16s group, Club V retooled the 17s squad coming into this season by adding outsides Levani Key-Powell and Jordyn Harvey and middle Taylor Harvey from Hive, which finished tied for 11th in 16 Open. Also joining was BYU commit and middle Mia Lee. All played key roles in the team’s success in Salt Lake and it stands to reason this new group is only going to keep improving throughout the season.
“The key for this team is just more time together playing against high-level competition,” Carlson said. “Our only other high-level tournament before this was Triple Crown. We are going to be at Red Rock, Lone Star and Reno, so we have some good tournaments coming up. We need time playing against different teams and different looks.”
Club V ended Day 1 beating eventual third-place finisher AZ Rev in three games. The sides met the next day to kick off gold pools, with Club V hanging on in three, 23-25, 25-15, 15-12, in one of the best matches of the weekend.
“They made some really good adjustments from the first time and ran some offense we didn’t see as much and that caught us off guard,” Carlson said. “It came down to athletes being athletes and it was one of those matches where we would get a great swing then they would get a great swing. It was just who can make one or two plays was going to be the difference.”
Beating ID Crush 17 Bower to start Day 3 put Club V in a position to win the pool outright and clinch its bid by beating Coast, which needed to sweep Club V to have any shot of advancing.
“We knew there was a bid on the line if we could win one set,” Carlson said. “We were a little too focused on that stuff and not focused on playing our best volleyball. The final it was all about focusing on trying to play our best.”
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Alamo 17 Premier (Second, 9-1)
- Day 1: d. Elevate Athletics (25-21, 25-10); d. Top Flight 17 National (25-9, 25-7); d. AZ Storm 17 Thunder (25-21, 25-20)
- Day 2: d. AsicsWillowbrook 17 Gold (27-25, 25-13); d. Excel 17 National Red (25-17, 22-25, 15-3); d. ID Crush 17 Bower (25-15, 25-11); d. Co Jrs 17 Kevin (25-23, 23-25, 15-9)
- Day 3: d. Madfrog 17 Green (25-18, 25-20); d. Sunshine 17 LA (18-25, 25-23, 15-11); l. Club V 17 Ren Reed (26-24, 25-16)
Undefeated through two rounds of pool play and headed to gold pools after sweeping ID Crush 17 Bower handily, Alamo 17 Premier coach Scott Mattera was wondering afterward with his assistant if their squad was really as good as what they had just witnessed against Crush.
If Mattera wasn’t entirely convinced after that impressive victory, what transpired in gold pools certainly did the trick. In order to clinch or at least play for a bid in the third-place contest, Alamo had to navigate a gold pool featuring Co Jrs 17 Kevin, Madfrog 17 Green and Sunshine 17 LA. Three victories later Alamo had its bid and a spot in the final, where its tournament ended with a loss to Club V 17 Ren Reed, 26-24, 25-16.
“We were pumped up,” Mattera said of qualifying. “We had been up and down as we knew we would be coming into this year. We were assigning girls to do new, different and advanced things and with it a riskier style of play. With it we knew it would be high risk, high reward and we were very much a high error team for a while this season. We managed to split with Drive Nation at the Tour and they started to see that this stuff works when executed.
“We settled in at Salt Lake. We played this beautiful match to end the second pool against a very good Crush team. We were wondering if we were really this good because we weren’t sure. The first match of gold pool we were watching Sunshine and Madfrog dropping bombs all over the place then we ended up taking a tight match against Co Jrs. Sunday morning we beat both Sunshine and Madfrog. It had a lot to do with our serve game taking teams out of system along with our defensive system came together and the girls really started grasping our concept.”
Outside Nayeli Gonzalez was a force to be reckoned with all weekend for Alamo but not that it was the only reason for the team’s success. Libero Alyssa Manitzas played like one of the best liberos in the country while defensive specialist Rylee Busse proved more than just a help in the back court.
“We went on so many runs with her on the service line,” Mattera said of Busse. “She’s a DS for us right now but she could play libero for a lot of teams. (Setter) Taylor Anderson really stepped up and was making some bold sets with her choices. She was also attacking more from the setting position and her connection with (middle) Hannah Whittingstall the last two days was electric on the slide and really made us dangerous.”
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AZ Rev 17 Premier (Third, 7-3)
- Day 1: d. LAVA West (25-20, 22-25, 15-9); d. NPJ Seattle (25-9, 14-25, 15-13); l. Club V 17 Ren Reed (20-25, 25-22, 15-9)
- Day 2: l. Sunshine 17 LA (23-23, 15-25, 15-12); d. Mizuno Long Beach 17 Rockstar (25-21, 22-25, 15-10); d. Texas Fury (25-20, 25-16); l. Club V 17 Ren Reed (22-25, 25-10, 19-17)
- Day 3: d. Coast 17-1 (25-20, 25-20); d. ID Crush 17 Bower (25-19, 17-25, 15-7); d. Co Jrs 17 Kevin (25-18, 25-22)
No team in 17 Open played as much volleyball as AZ Rev 17 Premier did in Salt Lake. The Arizona club racked up 27 sets of action, going three in all but three matches. However, despite the turbulent performances at times AZ Rev was in position to qualify and did so after downing Co Jrs 17 Kevin in straight sets, 25-18, 25-22, in the third-place match.
“The tournament was interesting in a sense and looking back we never finished first in pool,” AZ Rev coach Carl DeFriez said. “We were just battling through tough matches. We weren’t getting discouraged. We would come out of a tough three-set battle and jump right back in. We did a great job staying in it the entire tournament.”
After winning 16 National a season ago, 10 members returned – with right side Eryn Jones the only newcomer – to help form the 17s and were able to break through in the first qualifier for them. DeFriez said he was excited coming into the Salt Lake event because he knows the talent this group possesses. There’s a lot of firepower with Kendal Murphy and Evan Hendrix at outside, Jones on the right and GG Greenlee and Shelby Gorospe patrolling the middle.
Still, AZ Rev found itself in a tough position after falling to Club V 17 Ren Reed for the second time to open gold pools Saturday evening, which set up a difficult Day 3 with matches remaining against Coast 17-1 and ID Crush 17 Bower.
“I think coming out of the three-set loss to Club V instead of getting discouraged or frustrated they came away optimistic and excited with the way they played,” DeFriez said. “They still knew there was a path to second in pool. That was probably the most fired up they were all tournament because they played an exceptional match.”
AZ Rev helped its cause mightily by overcoming Coast in straight sets to begin the final day of competition then closed out gold pool by outlasting ID Crush in three to eventually finish second. That set up a shot for a bid with Co Jrs.
“(Co Jrs) was playing well and we got some good feedback on them from some other coaches,” DeFriez said. “I felt like we weren’t going to lose that match. Walking in the team was excited and enthusiastic and ready to go. That they had that much energy and drive despite playing a lot of volleyball was great to see.”
