Badger Region Qualifier: Sting Survives Final Four Gauntlet
Sunday at the Milwaukee Sting Center provided plenty of fireworks with Motion 18 Blu, Capital Adidas 18, Wisconsin Volleyball Academy 18 Black, and Milwaukee Sting 18 Black locked up in semifinal play, all vying for a National Bid to USAV Nationals. Each team has high powered hitting and solid defense. A true glimpse of what some of the athletes will be competing with at the next level next year in college. When all was said and done Milwaukee Sting 18 Black defeated WVA 18 Black in three sets to secure a National bid which then resulted in a trickle down of WVA accepting a USA bid, Capital accepting an American bid, and Motion accepting an American bid as well. All teams will have a chance to improve their seed and bid at the next USAV Qualifiers held in March.
Semifinals
Wisconsin Sting 18 Black over Motion 18 Blue – 25-21, 25-19
With these two teams out of the Milwaukee area there are many of these athletes who have played with each other on high school teams, against each other in club and high school, and some of the Motion players having once wore a Sting jersey. Not a lot of surprises between these two teams.
The match was back and forth with the point difference never getting higher than four or five in favor of Sting. Once Sting would go for a run, Motion would answer right back. Cori Meyers (Nicolet/Winona State) and Abby Hamilton (Hartford/Loyola) were simply too much for Motion in the end. Meyers has an approach and touch that will rival many elite Division 1 pins while Hamilton has quite the shot selection and was unstoppable coming out of the middle running a high “2” tempo set where she was able to pick apart the defense.
Motion is incredibly scrappy, having a fire about them that would refuse to lay down. Sting was never able to deliver a knockout punch with the power behind Greta Paczek (Arrowhead/Bemidji State) and Katy Kluge (Oconomowoc/Uncommitted). Paige Jaeger (Oconomowoc/Stony Brook) was incredibly solid at libero for Motion. Any ball with in her range was a money pass to the setter. Motion also had Sophia Paul and Kaitlyn Boelter-Eberhardt find the corner and hitting smart shots to keep Sting in check. However, in the end Sting was just too solid and made the final run in each set to advance to the finals.
Wisconsin Volleyball Academy 18 Black over Capital Adidas 18 – 25-23, 15-25, 18-16
At times I thought Claire Chaussee was going to jump over the net on some of her approaches. The Louisville commit out of Sun Prairie was such a force for Capital, but the balance of WVA held on to squeak out the semifinal victory, holding off multiple match points from Capital in set three.
In any great tournament there is bound to be some controversy and in this case we had “Wiregate”. On the sideline of the court there is a wire that is used for a net curtain to prevent volleyballs from going to other courts during practice. If a ball were to hit the wire, it is ruled a “REPLAY”. The chances of this happening are slim to none (you would think).
Capital had a play out of the middle where after the attack, WVA was unable to defend the attack, sending the ball out of bounds to results in a for sure kill before hitting the wire resulting in a replay. Fast forward to set three and a similar play happened with WVA attacking and Capital defending the ball to have it flying out of bounds to only be potentially hit by the wire. Capital pleaded their case, I was streaming the play live through my phone on Facebook and that wire is so small it is really tough to see from across the court. Capital did not get a replay and it resulted in a point for WVA.
With Capital up 14-12 in set three, WVA went on a run to tie the match at 14, to then go back and forth before finally winning on a Capital net violation.
This match was intense, a high level, high flying, next level battle that no matter the controversy or result, a lot of great volleyball was played with plenty of players who in a matter of a few months will be training for Division 1 and Division 2 programs they will be playing for in the Fall.
Finals
Milwaukee Sting 18 Black over Wisconsin Volleyball Academy 25-14, 19-25, 15-4
After WVA’s intense and emotional match over Captial, the first set was a bit of an emotion let down and Sting capitalized scoring early and often never looking back winning 25-14.
Set two was going to be Sting’s swan song into winning their bid, but WVA had other plans. Emily Scott (Kimberly/Louisville) and high school teammate Brianna Weyenberg (Kimberly/Minnesota-Duluth) were absolute forces out of the middle. With WVA running quick tempos and slides, Sting was out of system giving WVA plenty of free ball opportunities they ultimately capitalized on. With the pin power of Sting, there were times where the fans and players were just waiting for that run to pull ahead of WVA, but that never quite happened. WVA closed out the set winning 25-19.
I haven’t personally been a part of this situation, but when you knock down a hornets nest, they often tend to get scary and aggressive. That’s exactly what happened to Sting (yes, pun intended) when they came out to start set three. Sting stayed in system, played aggressively, a couple errors by WVA and it was all of a sudden 8-1 in favor of Sting at the side change. With a few points traded back and forth, Sting won set three convincingly 15-4 earning the National bid which then created the trickle down of WVA accepting the USA bid and Capital and Motion earning an American bid.
*WVA will be traveling to the Mizuno Boston Volleyball Festival this upcoming weekend.
*Motion and Capital will be playing in the final GLPL March 17 and 18.
*All four of these teams will be playing in the MidEast Qualifer (MEQ) in Indianapolis March 23-25.