Minnesota 18s Teams Go Combined 11-1 on Day 2 of AAU Nationals
Title Photo Cred: so.jean photography
Day 2 proved to be a great day for Minnesota clubs as they keep moving on towards Championship Thursday, with Wednesday being a big day for the final pool play and crossovers to end the day.
Kokoro
6-0 in a dominant fashion between the two Kokoro teams with 18-1 and 17/18s this morning. Kokoro 18-1 had to play two teams from the same club in TPV out of Tennessee where both brought a very athletic and physical style of play to the court. With tight scores all the way to about the 20 point mark Kokoro would just pull away. Angela Denney was extremely dominant being able to score from either pin. Kaitlyn Bakke ran an efficient offense which kept each opponent off balance. 18-1 puts themselves in a good spot heading into Wednesday with Premier Onitsuka out of Ohio and Carolina Rogue (who beat Kokoro on the opening day).
The 17/18 squad was the three seed in the pool heading into the day, but that didn’t phase this group as it went on to a 6-1 set record and 3-0 overall match record. As the day went on, Kokoro became more dominant starting with a three set win and finishing with a victory over Kaboom 18 Force (TX) by the score of 25-16, 25-19. Mckenzie Galvin and Mckenna Keenan have been strong on the pin while Abby Larson provides a such athleticism and physicality offensively and defensively along the net.
KEVC goes 3-0 on Day 2.Kandi Elite started right where they left off from Monday with two dominating wins against clubs out of Hawaii and Illinois. The final match of the day would be against Rolling Thunder who is always a strong club out of the Chicagoland area. After dropping the first set, KEVC was able to comeback to win set two forcing a winner take all set three. With Rolling Thunder jumping out early and being ahead at the side change, it was all Kandi Elite from there. A monsterous block by Carly Wedel to tie the game at 10-10 tilted all the momentum in the favor of the club out of Willmar, MInnesota. The momentum was too much to overcome for Rolling Thunder as KEVC would win the match 15-12. Kandi Elite will have matches tomorrow morning against clubs out of Kentucky and Louisiana with a crossover against another pool to end the day.
SWMNVB
Although the tournament is only two days old, SWMNVB has been grinding through to be in contention after a 1-2 record on day one to bounce back with a 2-1 record on Tuesday. Lydia Sussner is up to doing what she does best, which is scoring points on a slide and finding an open spot in the block to put the ball on the floor. Despite a loss to Kairos out of Sioux Falls, they are still in a spot that gives them an opportunity to play for hardware come Thursday. Two matches tomorrow against TPV (TN) and Munciana Indy 18 Titans followed by a crossover will determine where Southwest will be playing Thursday when teams go into bracket play.