The good news is plenty more coverage is on the way from this weekend’s Triple Crown NIT in Kansas City. The bad news is you are going to have to be patient as we churn it out over the course of the next couple of days. I’m going to go through and highlight the results from Day 3’s championship action below. Also, this week we’ll be releasing the vballrecruiter.com All-Tournament Team, our Day 3 Show Stoppers as well as a final write up from the weekend and the things I think and thought about it.
Getting to the gold medal matches from Monday, vballrecruiter.com’s top-ranked team in the 18s division in Drive Nation 18 Red continued its magnificent beginning to this season. Drive Nation already captured two national qualifiers at Florida Fest and Lone Star and now adds the Triple Crown 18s Elite Division championship after topping Coast 18-1 in three sets, 23-25, 25-19, 16-14, in the final.
It capped a perfect 9-0 run for Drive Nation, but the North Texas Region squad definitely had to work for it. The championship match was one of six three-setters for Drive Nation, including in its final four outings of the weekend. Drive Nation downed both Club V 18 Ren Reed and Premier Nebraska 18 Gold in three on Day 1, then closed Day 2 by outlasting Adidas KiVA 18 Red before continuing on Monday by edging NPJ 18 Forefront in the quarterfinals and Munciana 18 Samurai in the semis. For now, there’s no doubt about it. Drive Nation is the team to beat in the 18s.
Moving to the 17s, the craziest upsets took place on Day 2 and I highlighted those here. That meant the crown was completely up for grabs as none of the favorites were around to contend for it. The last two standing were NKYVC 17-1 Tsunami and OT 17 Aaron, just the final everyone predicted! NKYVC finished runner up last year in 16s and wasn’t going to accept second place again as NKYVC swept 27-25, 25-20.
You have to give it up to NKYVC, which only lost to Rockwood Thunder 17 Elite on Day 1. Among NKYVC’s victories were Madfrog 17 Green, Skyline 17 Royal, Coast 17-1, A5 17 Jing and Premier Nebraska 17 Gold, which already is qualified for 17 Open this summer. NKYVC recently finished tied for fifth at Central Zone, where the team was playing without standout middle Julia Hunt. Clearly, NKYVC was determined to show out better here in KC and it certainly did in very impressive fashion! I had NKYVC ranked No. 12 in the country to begin the year but they tumbled down to No. 28 in the latest update after the Central Zone result. Next time, NKYVC is sure to move up.
In the 16s division, Surfside 16 PV Legends made a statement by downing Hou Skyline 16 Royal, 25-18, 25-22, and taking home the trophy. Surfside came into the tournament ranked No. 11 in our Top 50 while Hou Skyline was No. 5. Surfside only lost against fourth-ranked Drive Nation 16 Red on Day 1. Seeing Surfside improve its roster from last year’s 15s bunch, it stood to reason that the club would take a step forward this season. But this quickly? No, that wasn’t expected.
The 15s championship match was incredible, with third-ranked Skyline 15 Royal clipping No. 16 SCVC 15 Roxy in three, 23-25, 25-23, 16-14. Skyline was swept by Boiler Jrs 15 Gold on Day 1 but didn’t lose outside that. While it wasn’t surprising to see Skyline perform as well as it did because of additions to its roster, SCVC started off in Power Pool C and certainly wasn’t expected to make the final.
Closing out with the 14s, it was the TAV 14 Black show. The NTR club went 9-0, capping its run by sweeping Drive Nation 14 Red, 25-12, 25-21, in the final. TAV downed Arizona Storm 14 Thunder in an emotional match in the semis. TAV took it in three, 25-21, 17-25, 15-9, in a rematch of last year’s 13 Open semifinals showdown, which Arizona Storm won in three.
They’ll be more from the amazing weekend in the coming days, please stay tuned.
