The Weekend Rewind: 18s off and rocking and more
We know teams have been playing since December but there is a buzz around qualifying tournaments and region league play. The Gateway League and Heart of American Power League got underway for the 18s age group. We also had the…
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Continue ReadingWe know teams have been playing since December but there is a buzz around qualifying tournaments and region league play. The Gateway League and Heart of American Power League got underway for the 18s age group. We also had the 16s and 17s start their league play.
Gateway League 18s:
We love when top teams get to go at it early in the year and we had some key matches in St. Louis. The first thing that jumped off the page was the 1 in the loss column for Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite. They are a seasoned team returning many key players but they ran into a strong HPSTL 18 Royal team. 18 Royal went three sets with Rockwood 18 Navy on Saturday, then again went three sets with HP Illinois, with a 20-18 third set prior to the match up with 18 Elite. HPSTL 18 Royal would carry that fire and momentum to a -17, -23 sweep of Rockwood to finish 7-0 on the weekend. Elite would finish 5-1. Both Rockwood Thunder Navy and Rockwood Thunder White had 5-2 weekends.
Gateway League 17s:
Rockwood Thunder Elite had a dominating weekend. The most scored by an opponent was 17 points on the way to a 6-0 finish. The Rockwood Thunder Navy team was as impressive matching the record of their sister club. HPSTL 17 Royal matched the undefeated record of their 18 team going 6-0, giving Rockwood Thunder White one of their two defeats. Missouri Juniors 17-1 has entered the chat and said don’t forget about us. This team was on our radar as a Heart of America power league prospect but they ventured east to play in Gateway. They had a strong showing, heading back to Columbia 6-0.
Gateway League 16s:
HPSTL top teams had a strong weekend capped off by the play of their 6-0 16 Royal team. They had a Sunday night battle versus Rockwood 16 Navy, winning -22, -22. The Navy team would finish 4-2 on the weekend. Rockwood Thunder 16 Elite didn’t want to be the only top team within the program to not go undefeated. They handled their business but had to fight a tough HP Illinois 16 Elite team in three sets. That would be the lone match dropped for HP Illinois 16 Elite on the weekend, as they would finish 4-1.
HOA 18s Power League Qualifier
With a pandemic, there has to be some adjustments in play and we saw that in Gardner, KS at the 18s Power League Qualifier. The typical format is 8 pools and the winner of each pool earns a bid to power league and then play a bracket tournament to decide seeding. This year you win your pool and go home, as the first four pools played at 8 am, the next four played at 11:30. The winner of the eight pools to automatically advance to Power League were: KC Power 18-1, Dynasty 18 Black, Shockwave 18-1, Mavs KC 18-1, 417 Juniors 18-1, PVA 18 Elite, Club North 18-1, Invasion 18 Black. Power, Shockwave, Mavs, and PVA were the four to not drop a set. Seedings will be determined using point percentage. The teams that didn’t win their pool still had hope in a playoff format. The two seeds from each pool earned byes and would wait to play the winner of 3 vs. 4 crossover matches. The final eight teams to earn their berth in Power League were: Fenix 18-1, Fight Club 18-1, Highlands Performance 18-1, Invasion 18 Blue, Invasion 18 White, Mavs 816 18-1, Pohaku 18-1, Topeka Saints 18-1. The first play date is scheduled for February 7th.