The first 15 Open bids of qualifying season were awarded in Salt Lake City. AZ Storm 15 Thunder proved untouchable in topping the field. Runner up Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar earned a bid, as did third-place finisher Austin Skyline 15 Royal. Below, we recap their paths to qualifying.
AZ Storm 15 Thunder (First, 10-0)
- Day 1: d. MAVS 816 (25-21, 25-19); d. TK Rise (25-10, 25-9); d. ID Crush (25-14, 25-16)
- Day 2: d. Madfrog 15 Green (26-24, 25-23); d. Skyline 15 Royal (25-19, 25-15); d. Coast (25-12, 25-14); d. Aspire 15 Premier (25-13, 25-13)
- Day 3: d. Austin Skyline 15 Royal (25-22, 25-19); d. Alamo 15 Premier (25-18, 22-25, 15-9); Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar (25-19, 25-16)
With 12 members back from last year’s 14 Open national championship team, AZ Storm’s quest for a title at Triple Crown in February was stalled with a three-set loss to Dynasty 15 Black to end Day 2 play. Storm settled for ninth after its only loss there. Playing in Salt Lake City in its first national tournament since Triple Crown, there was no denying Storm this go around.
In going 10-0 and taking first in 15 Open, Storm dropped just one set when it defeated Alamo 15 Premier in three to close out gold pool action. After that, Storm handed Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar its only defeat of the weekend, winning 25-19, 25-16, in the final.
“Triple Crown was this aha moment that everyone is gunning for us and we have to play every point,” Storm coach Jami Rolfes said. “Nothing is going to be handed to us. I was really proud of them this weekend because over the past two-and-a-half weeks we’ve had three girls get concussed. I had no idea what was going to happen but I was fired up because we played with a lot of grit and found a way.”
While Storm was rarely challenged outside the three-setter with Alamo and a tight sweep over Madfrog 15 Green (26-24, 25-23) on Day 2, part of its development is not relying so heavily on stud outside hitter Teraya Sigler.
“We have Tee and she’s an all-around stud,” Rolfes said. “Just having her on the court, she plays well front row and back row, is one of our best passers and defenders and she obviously hits the ball hard. Her just being her is awesome, but both our middles stepped up. We are learning to get Kendal Cogill involved and our other middle Makena Rumple is just kind of earning her spot and she stepped up big time with 26 blocks on the weekend. She does a really good job closing the block.
“Our L2 Devyn Wiest is just a baller. She just wants to come out and play and goes after it. I could talk about all of my kids. I thought Olivia Lenz did a good job stepping in at libero. I don’t think she’s played that role with this group before. Izzy Mahaffey is normally our libero but since she was just coming back and it was working I didn’t want to change anything.”
Setter Avery Lim is playing up an age group and is continuing to come along. Rolfes said she’s “filling big shoes” this season and even though she’s undersized at the net she was able to slow some balls down. Moving forward Storm will look to get right side Raegan Richardson even more involved in the offense as well.
“Just continuing to have a balanced offense so Tee doesn’t have to carry everybody,” Rolfes said. “I think we need to continue working on our blocking, especially on the right side because teams attack us there. Our serve and pass game was pretty solid.”
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Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar (Second, 9-1)
- Day 1: d. GSL 15 Elect (25-11, 26-24); d. Tstreet 15 Curtis (20-25, 25-16, 20-18); d. Coast 15-1 (25-16, 25-20)
- Day 2: d. Flyers 15 John (25-14, 25-19); d. Austin Skyline 15 Royal (25-20, 25-20); d. Absolute Black 15-1 (25-20, 25-18); d. Excel 15 National Red (25-17, 25-20)
- Day 3: d. Madfrog 15 Green (25-19, 25-22); d. ARVC 15 Adidas (25-18, 25-14); l. AZ Storm 15 Thunder (25-19, 25-16)
Given Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar’s 11th-place showing at Triple Crown and being seeded No. 7 overall at the Salt Lake City Showdown, it wasn’t surprising to see the So Cal club earn its bid as much as it was the way it went down. Beach was undefeated heading into its 15 Open championship match clash against AZ Storm 15 Thunder, a squad that narrowly clipped Beach last month in Kansas City. Even though it was all Storm in the rematch – sweeping in straight sets, 25-19, 25-16 – Beach walked away with an Open bid nevertheless.
“I’m really proud of this group,” Long Beach coach Carlos Briceno said. “They work really hard in practice and they listen. They’ve really bought in at the beginning of the season. There’s a lot of upside to this team. Every offensive player is capable of getting five kills a set. We are strong across the front at all times and we have strong players who can attack out of the back row.”
Beach is not a particularly big team, with the exception of Kalyssa Blackshear in the middle. She’s capable of hitting over double blocks or as Briceno pointed out hitting “crazy angles” around single blocks. Emma Rowell is the other middle and like other Beach players is a bit undersized but she’s quick and knows how to score.
Outsides Kiana Greer and Simone Roslon are similar with both their strong passing skills and effective hitting. Greer was playing on a 2s team the past two seasons before breaking through this year. Meanwhile, Rolson is one of three eighth-graders who start. Layli Ostovar and Preslie Saunders are the other two and line up on the right along with Sunni Skipps at times. Isabella Jones and Ayva Ostovar share setting duties, while Sydney Raszewski and Kayla Ostovar don the libero jerseys.
“When we pass we can beat anybody,” Briceno said. “It’s the same for other teams but we have so much firepower that when we have our three front row players available it’s hard to stop us.”
Beach got over a bit of a local hurdle on Day 1 against a pair of SCVA mates, clipping Tstreet 15 Curtis in three and sweeping Coast 15-1. Beach struggled against Tstreet last year as 14s and was 1-2 in regional tournaments against Coast so far this season but found its groove after beating them Friday. Beach swept its next six contests before running into Storm. It included beating top-seeded Absolute Black 15-1 on Day 2 and a strong Madfrog 15 Green’s team on Day 3.
“We still have a lot of upside,” Briceno said. “We aren’t close to our best. They are really eager to learn and work hard so that’s a great combination to have. The sky is the limit.”
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Austin Skyline 15 Royal (Third, 7-3)
- Day 1: d. Idaho One (25-17, 25-23); d. United 15 Arete (25-21, 25-14); l. Excel National 15 Red (23-25, 29-27, 15-13)
- Day 2: d. Absolute 15 Black (25-19, 25-23); l. Mizuno Long Beach 15 Rockstar (25-20, 25-20); d. Flyers 15 John (25-22, 25-15); d. Alamo 15 Premier (25-21, 25-21)
- Day 3: l. AZ Storm 15 Thunder (25-22, 25-19); d. Aspire (25-19, 25-15); d. Excel 15 National Red (25-21, 25-12)
Austin Skyline brought a compacted roster to Salt Lake City than the one that qualified for 14 Open a year ago. With nine returning players plus a new setter the 10-girl roster is smaller in numbers but still managed to earn its way into 15 Open at Nationals by finishing third overall in Utah.
“We only have 10 players and three are defensive players so we have zero subs on the pins and zero subs at middle,” Austin Skyline coach and club director Jenny Luke said, “so we have to play through our errors. We have to work through them.”
Closing out Day 1 with a three-set setback against Excel 15 National Red, Austin Skyline gained another crack at Excel in the third-place match for the final Open bid Sunday. Luke said her team wasn’t playing its best volleyball on Day 1 against Excel but it changed in the rematch with Austin Skyline sweeping, 25-21, 25-12, to qualify.
Austin Skyline faced both finalists in Arizona Storm (Day 3) and Long Beach (Day 2), falling to both in straight sets. Obviously beating Excel for the bid ended up being the biggest victory of the weekend, but it was not the only one of note. Day 2 kicked off with Austin Skyline upsetting top-seeded Absolute 15 Black in two, 25-19, 25-23. Then later that evening, Austin Skyline topping Alamo 15 Premier to open gold pools Saturday evening helped paved the way to the third-place match.
“Alamo is a tougher match up for us,” Luke said. “They have some really talented outsides and middles. We played them the last match at Triple Crown and lost to them.”
After losing to Storm to begin Sunday’s action Austin Skyline swept Aspire to make the third-place contest. The Lone Star Region club lines up Lily Davis and Riley Certain at outsides, with Ameila Robinson and Eloise Roffers in the middle. At 6-4, Addison Gaido is a big weapon on the right side and a rising talent. Jacy Carrejo hits on the right when she’s front row and shares setting duties with Coral Verrico. The defensive players are libero Callie Krueger, DS Mallory Weyand and DS Adali Santos.
Gaido and Carrejo were both effective scoring on the right side in Salt Lake, while Robinson always posed a threat in the middle with Roffers’ serving playing a key role in the final match against Excel. Davis and Krueger passed efficiently in serve receive to help set the tone.
“The overall thing for us is we obviously have some good physical pieces but our serve and pass is what we focus on that ultimately won games for us,” Luke said. “Our serve and pass is really efficient and we did well in our out of system scoring as well. Those are the three things we work on the most at practice.”
