Wisconsin Club President’s Day Recap
With teams from Wisconsin competing across the country, it was a busy and battle tested for some of the top clubs in the state in Aurora, The Wisconsin Dells, Salt Lake City, and St. Louis. With most of the tournaments being a three day grind, it always bring an added element of playing 9-12 matches a weekend instead of the usual 3-6. The highlight of the weekend were some of the best finishes coming from Milwaukee Sting 15 and 16’s Black and White teams in Aurora as well as Capital 16 Navy taking home the Club Championship out of St. Louis. Take a closer look at how the rest of the teams competed this past weekend
Aurora
Milwaukee Sting 15 Black and 16 White took home championships in 15 Premier and 16 Club at the Sports Performance Presidents Day Tournament. 15 Black steamrolled the competition by only dropping two sets and going 8-0 over the course of the weekend. 16 White was the Club winners going 9-0 and not dropping a set. Kaleigh Fitzgerald and Isabelle Schauer were named All Tournament team while Madelyn Rettler of West Bend West was named MVP of the 16 Club Division.
Other Milwaukee Sting teams were able to place very high with 18 Black finishing 9th in the 18 Open Division, 16 Black finished fourth in 16 Premier, and 15 White finished 5th in the 15 Club Division.
Wisconsin Premier had three teams competing in this tournament with 15 Teal being the top finisher in the club with a 13th place finish in 15 Premier.
Wisconsin Dells
Motion 17 Blu took home the championship in the 17/18s division with a trio of victories over other Badger Region teams defeating Next Level VBC, a very athletic and physical team in V-Hawk Extreme 18 National in the semifinals, and a very experienced team in Wisconsin Ice 18 National in the finals. Motion 17 Blu is incredibly athletic with the likes of Chyna Bacchus, Nicole Martin, and Jessie Connel.
Net Force out Illinois was the top finisher in the 16s division defeating Epic 16 West out of the Racine area. The final four was capped off with Milwaukee Sting 14 Gold and Sting United 16 Madison.
In the 15s Division, a three set battle in the championship went in favor of Fond Du Lac Fusion 15 National against Milwaukee Sting 14 White. V-Hawk Extreme 15 Adidas and Club Synergy were part of the final four.
Salt Lake City
Triple Crowne Sports put on one of the top tournaments with teams from all over the country this weekend in Salt Lake City, the same company that recently formed the NIT version of NCAA Volleyball. The tournament was streamed throughout the weekend with the championships being on ESPN3, a big deal to say the least. Next year (and until 2023) the tournament will be held in the new hot bed of volleyball enthusiast of Kansas City, which will be interesting to see if the West Coast Teams will come to the Midwest and if it will pull teams from Omaha and St. Louis that are traditionally strong Presidents Day Tournaments.
Milwaukee Sting 17 Gold finished runner up in the 17 Open Division, winning four of its last five matches to finish the weekend bringing home some hardware. Their loss in the championship was to A4 out of Southern California.
Sting 16 Gold was on their winning ways starting out 4-0 before falling in three sets to Munciana Ninjas, which the Munciana Club out of Indiana is a powerhouse (understatement) where they are producing some of the top prep players as well as coaches in the country. Wisconsin Coach, Gary Sheffield is a former Munciana coach. With a few stumbles after, 16 Gold was able to finish 14th overall.
Sting 15 Gold and Sting 18 Gold ran into some early matchups that posed some problems (again these are some of the top teams in the nation with players who will be some of the top Freshmen in the NCAA next year). Sting 15 Gold finished 18th with their losses coming to teams from Colorado, Southern California, and Texas. Sting 18 Gold finished with a 5-4 record with their losses coming to teams from Arizona, Southern California, and Texas.
St. Louis
Capital 16 Navy went undefeated in the Club division with an overall set record of 20-1, having to defeat Wisconsin Juniors in the championship with set scores being 25-22, 25-15. Capital and Wisconsin Juniors brought their top teams in each age division with Capital 18 Adidas having the best finish being 11th in the 18 Open Division. Wisconsin Juniors have quite a team with their 16-1 team, placing much higher than their anticipated seed with a 12th place finish in 16 Open.
Milwaukee Sting brought their 17 Black and White team where they actually had to face off in the Premier Silver Bracket, with Black winning 25-13, 25-22 and then eventually falling to Blue Steel VBC (not to be confused with Zoolander’s one look).
For more pictures and team updates please visit our Facebook page where we share updates from clubs from across the state on their results over the weekend!