January Thaw Day 1: Elite 18 Yang Only Nebraska Team Left in Bid Contention
Sarah Johnson of Northern Lights 182 (13) has her attack blocked at the net by Millard North’s Emma Grunkemeyer (13) and Sergeant Bluff ‘s Madison Harms of Nebraska Elite 18 Ying during a pool play match in the January Thaw…
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Continue ReadingSarah Johnson of Northern Lights 182 (13) has her attack blocked at the net by Millard North’s Emma Grunkemeyer (13) and Sergeant Bluff ‘s Madison Harms of Nebraska Elite 18 Ying during a pool play match in the January Thaw 18 Open division. (Photo by Berk Brown)
OMAHA – After one day at the January Thaw 18s USAV Nationals Qualifier at the CHI Health Center, just one team from Nebraska remains in the hunt for a bid to the national championships.
Nebraska Elite 18 Yang advanced to the championship round of 12 earlier today with three wins in its initial pool of the 18 American division. Elite 18 Yang, the #2 overall seed in the division, struggled out of the gate but rebounded with a 22-25, 25-15, 15-6 win over Impact 18 Black before sweeping both Engaged Athletics 18 and Steel City Diggers 18 Purple.
Elite 18 Yang must now place in the top two of its four-team pool on Saturday in order to advance to the championship bracket on Sunday. In Elite 18 Yang’s pool tomorrow will be MVP 18 Blue of Sioux City, Mizuno Northern Lights 18-R of Minneapolis and Southland Aces 181 of Kansas City.
In the 18 Open portion of the USAV Qualifier, Premier 18 Gold dropped its first two matches of the day against Mizuno Northern Lights 181 and FC Elite 18 Navy, which knocked it out of bnid contention. Premier 18 Gold responded, however, with a 25-19, 25-15 win over Advancement Academy Volleyball Club 18 Green to finish the day 1-2.
While Nebraska Elite 18 Ying also finished 1-2 in 18 Open, it had a couple chances to find its way into the championship round of eight but couldn’t quite seal the deal.
In its opening match, Elite 18 Ying took the first set 26-24 over Sunshine 18 Westside before falling 25-21, 15-10 in the final two sets. Elite 18 Ying rebounded with an impressive sweep of Milwaukee Sting 18 Gold 27-25, 25-14, setting up a match with Northern Lights 182 foer a berth into the championship round of eight.
Elite 18 Ying won the first set 25-18, but Northern Lights evened the match with a 25-21 victory in the second set. The third set was as tight as it could possibly be with the teams being tied at every point from 3 all the way to 10.
A kill by Emmy Grant (Millard North) gave Elite 18 Ying a lead of 11-10 and Sophie Moes (Omaha Marian) followed with a tough serve that resulted in the Northern Lights setter being called for a life as she scrambled to track down an errant pass and Elite went ahead 12-10. Northern Lights would score the next three points, but a Lily Heyne (Skutt Catholic) kill tied it at 13-13.
Macy Winter of Northern Lights, who is committed to Navy, answered with a kill from the back row and then Winter ended it with a kill from the outside as Northern Lights took the third set 15-13.
In the 18 USA division of the USAV Qualifier, Premier 18 Black went 2-1 in its pool but dropped a 25-12 tie-breaker to 303 Volleyball Academy 18 Alpha to fall into the consolation portion of the tournament. Premier 18 Black had defeated the same 303 team 21-25, 25-20, 15-11 during pool play.
In the 18 American division of the USAV Qualifier, Omaha Volleyball Club 18s went 1-2 to finish third in its pool while Banzai 181 went 0-3. Both teams will take part in consolation play tomorrow and Sunday.