Recap of 18s Region Bid Tournament
There weren’t any medals or t-shirts to play for at The Pipeline in Omaha today. The 7 teams were playing for a spot in the USA Girls Junior National Championships in April. The 18s bid tournament consisted of upsets, long…
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Continue ReadingThere weren’t any medals or t-shirts to play for at The Pipeline in Omaha today. The 7 teams were playing for a spot in the USA Girls Junior National Championships in April. The 18s bid tournament consisted of upsets, long rallies and some high level volleyball throughout the day. There was 1 National division bid and 1 American division bid up for grabs.
The double elimination bracket began at 8:00 this morning and concluded shortly before 4:00 this afternoon. VCN 18 Elite entered as the #4 seed to start the day, but came away with the National bid. VCN was solid throughout the entire day and only dropped 2 sets, both coming from Nebraska ONE 18 Titanium. Junior middle Kalynn Meyer (Nebraska commit) put up a complete wall at the net. She and Kyla Swanson (Illinois commit) were almost unstoppable on their slide attacks. VCN 18 Elite did a great job spreading their offense and they saw fantastic production from the rest of the team. Wayne State is lucky to be getting a player like Kelsie Cada. The outside hitter from Bishop Neumann has a cannon for an arm and plays the game so well all-around.
Nebraska ONE 18 Titanium came away with the American bid after losing two thrilling 3 set matches to VCN 18 Elite. Titanium won their first two matches of the day, then dropped the 3rd match to VCN, forcing them to go to the losers bracket. Titanium only had to play one loser’s bracket match to put them back up against VCN in the battle for the bids. Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year Marriah Buss (Witchita State commit) just recently returned from hip surgery and she came in clutch for Titanium today. Even though their setter Hope Leimbach (Midland commit) is only 5’5”, she is an absolute stud at the net. Leimbach, as well as libero Erin Williams (Omaha commit) were taking some major heat in the back row and both played vital roles in keeping Titanium’s hopes for a bid alive today. Fallon Stutheit (Nebraska commit) and Whitney Jenson (Nebraska Wesleyan commit) were right behind Buss today and put down multiple kills for Titanium.
What might have been the biggest shock of the day was Nebraska Juniors 18 black’s win over Premier 18 Gold in the loser’s bracket. Nebraska Juniors 18 black knocked out Premier 18 Gold, handing them their second loss of the day. Premier 18 Gold came in as the top seed, but dropped two matches in a row and was eliminated from qualifying at the region bid tournament. Nebraska Juniors 18 Black was then eliminated by Nebraska ONE 18 Titanium. Premier 18 Gold, as well as the other 18s teams in the state will still have a chance to qualify for nationals in Dallas at other national qualifiers.