Volley on James Day 1 Morning Wave
It was a great day at the Richmond Convention Center for the 17th annual Volley by the James tournament (formerly named the Monument City Classic). Day one in downtown Richmond featured the 17 and 18 age groups for the Club…
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Continue ReadingIt was a great day at the Richmond Convention Center for the 17th annual Volley by the James tournament (formerly named the Monument City Classic). Day one in downtown Richmond featured the 17 and 18 age groups for the Club and Open divisions. The weather was mild for mid-January in the River City. The Richmond Volleyball Club event staff did an amazing job with organizing and helping to implement the safety protocols to help ensure the safety of the staff and participants. The 18 Open has a total of 9 teams participating with 7 coming from the Commonwealth and 2 from Maryland for the top division of the oldest age group. The pools are very competitive with lots of high caliber players on each team.
As expected, Paramount Volleyball 18s was dominant in their first two matches, allowing 58 total points in their first 4 sets against St James and MVSA of Maryland. Maryland Juniors also started strong with wins in their first two matches, besting Coastal Hampton Roads and CORE VA Platinum in two sweeps. Vienna Elite 18 L was the other team undefeated in matches but had to win in deciding sets in both of their morning contests, beating Coastal Hampton Roads 18 National 15-11 in the third and CORE VA Platinum 15-13 in the tiebreaker.
After day one of the competitions for 18 Open, Vienna Elite 18 L and MD Juniors 18 Elite won day one of the Volley on the James 18s Open Division with undefeated records. Vienna scored a 2-0 record with three set wins over Coastal Hampton Roads and CORE VA 18 Platinum. Maryland Juniors won all three of their matches, sweeping Coastal and CORE and defeating Paramount 18s in three sets. Paramount and Richmond Volleyball Club also were strong on Day 1 with 2-1 starts and 5-2 records in sets. The remainder of the 18’s Open pool will continue tomorrow morning at the Convention Center starting at 8 tomorrow morning.
The 18 Club division is hosted 20 teams in 5 pools Saturday morning. The 18 Club division concluded play with four teams winning all 3 of their matches today, putting themselves in a good position to make it into the 1st Division brackets later in the weekend. BAVA (Bay Area Volleyball Academy of Md) Lightning, Baltimore (Md) Elite VBC Navy, Blue Ridge 18-1 (VA) and Roanoke United 18 Red all went undefeated in matches and sets in the morning wave. The second-place finishers in each bracket also qualify for the 1st division bracket. Those teams all finished 2-1 in matches on the day with Horizons Edge (VA) (4-3 in sets), MVSA 18 Chaos (MD)
(4-3 in sets), Shenandoah Valley Juniors 18-1 (4-2 in sets) and Virginia Venom 18-1 (4-2 in sets). The fifth pool had Virginia Volleyball Academy tie with Major Impact (VA) with identical 2-1 records with Old Dominion Volleyball Academy potentially making it a three-way tie of they beat Braddock Road Volleyball Club in the final match of pool play.
The 17s open division had 9 teams and the rosters are ripe with AVCA Phenom nominees, VHSL and VISAA All-State Players, and PrepDig FallStars in a very competitive and talented division. Richmond Volleyball Club 17 National started off the pool strong with a 3 set victory over Paramount 17s and and sweeping a strong, athletic Roanoke United 17s team. Blue Ridge Volleyball Association 17-1, CORE VA 17 Platinum, and Roanoke United 17 Red all finished the pool with 2-1 records. Blue Ridge’s sole blemish was against a very talented Vienna (VA) Elite 17 F in three sets with CORE falling to the Vienna Elite 17 L team. Day two starts at 8am at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.
The 17 club division has some outstanding players as well with 22 teams spread over 6 pools with challenge brackets following pool play. Four pools ended with an undefeated team: Baltimore Elite 17 Navy (MD), Coastal Hampton Roads 17 National (VA), Coastal VA 16 Dexter (VA), Vienna Elite 17 W (VA), and Horizons Edge VBC 17 Black all finished their first pool undefeated in matches with Baltimore Elite and Coastal VA 16 Dexter unscathed in sets as well (6-0). Coastal Hampton Roads went 6-2 in sets, going to deciding games against CORE VA Titanium and Dulles Youth Sports U16 Thunder. Vienna Elite dropped a single set in their crossover match against the New Kent 17-1 Coyotes (VA). Horizons Edge won two of their matches in three sets against XZone’s 17 Red Elite and Virginia Venom 17-1 team.
The rest of the first division includes Braddock Road 17-1, Colonial Volleyball Club 17 Purple, Maryland Juniors 17 Elite Yellow, New Kent Juniors 17 Coyote, and Virginia Volleyball Academy all finishing 2-1 in pool play. They are joined by Outbreak 16 Black who was the winner of the crossover against St. James Academy. Virginia Venom closes out the first division who won the tiebreaker of the 1-2 teams in Pool 2 with a 4-4 record in sets. The 1st division will continue playing tomorrow, splitting between the Greater Richmond Convention Center and the RVC Stonebridge facility in Midlothian at 8am. The second division will continue play tomorrow starting at 8am with play hosted at RVC’s Byrdhill and Stonebridge facility.
For the 13s club, several teams had dominant performance and perfect first days of competition. Colonial Volleyball 13 Purple, Dulles (VA) Youth Sports 13 Thunder, MVSA 13 Wahoo!, and RVC 13 Slate all finished undefeated in pool play. It’s far from not competitive as every team won at least one match. The 12s Club division was dominated by Albemarle (NC) Regional Volleyball Club, sweeping all 4 matches Saturday. Colonial Volleyball Club had a strong finish with a 3-1 record.