GJNC Recap – Houston Juniors 17 Elite – 17 USA
The USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from June 26-July 5. In order to play at this prestigious tournament in one of the four main divisions, a club team must win their…
Access all of Prep Dig
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThe USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from June 26-July 5. In order to play at this prestigious tournament in one of the four main divisions, a club team must win their bid by placing at a USAV national qualifier.
184 teams have earned their right to represent their club and compete to be one of the best teams in the nation in four different 17’s divisions. The state of Texas was heavily represented in the 17’s USA Division with 10 teams making the trip to Nevada.
Houston Juniors 17 Elite
The team led by head coach Jeff Ham has had a fantastic season as they were able to Qualify for USA Junior Nationals. So far this season they have 39 wins and only 17 losses against some stellar competition. They won the Adidas Windy City National Qualifier in the USA Division to earn their bid to Nationals.
Day one and two consists of pool play. There are six pools of six teams that are seeded by USA Volleyball. Many factors go into the seeding such as win/loss record versus the rest of the teams in the field. HJV 17 Elite came in to the tournament ranked as the 5th best team in the 17 USA Division.
They went undefeated in the first pool of the tournament that is played over the first two days. The only tough match that they truly had was against Adversity Adidas from the Great Lakes region in which HJV won (25-21, 27-15). The other four teams in the pool were no match for 17 Elite as they won each match pretty easily.
Day three at Nationals bottle-necks into eight pools of three. They determine these pools by who finished 1st through 4th of each pool. These teams now have to prove themselves by getting first or second place in this pool to still have a shot at the title. HJV actually finished second in this pool as they lost to a very tough Arizona Sky team.
They were still alive in the chase for the championship even though they lost the one match in the previous pool. But it gets much tougher now. The tourney now shifts to a sudden death format in which if you lose one match…you’re out of contention. It comes down to one challenge match to get into the Gold bracket, which consists of the top 8 teams. HJV 17 Elite was matched against Tallahassee Juniors 17 Nike Pro for the right to go to Gold. Houston punched them in the mouth early and put on a show as they won 25-10. TJVBC decided to make it a game and almost pulled off the upset but ended up losing 23-25.
Up next for HJV was the Day four Gold bracket. Everyone involved in club ball knows just how hard the early morning Gold bracket 1st match is. The players have just played three days of grueling competition and whoever has the mental fortitude, freshest legs, and best energy remaining usually has the edge. HJV ran into a strong Oklahoma team in UPVBC 17 Adidas National. They lost the first set in extras to UPVBC 29-27 in nail-biting fashion. HJV came back to win the next set in deciding fashion, 25-16. Next came the important tie-breaking set to determine who moves on to the semis. It was super close the entire way through but Houston Juniors prevailed 16-14.
The Semi-Finals against Dig This! From Southern Cali wasn’t even close as HJV prevailed easily (25-17, 25-19). This pitted them against Gainesville 17 Elite from Florida who came into the tourney ranked number one overall for the right to be called the National Champion of the 17 USA Division. HJV pulled off the “upset” against the top seed (27-25, 25-16) to win the championship. Let’s meet a few of the players from the team.
Casey Batenhorst and Kamryn Scroggins were named to the 17 USA All-Tournament team due to their amazing setting throughout the entire tourney. Both have been on my watch-list and will be ranked in our state rankings in our next update. Stay tuned to see where they fall amongst the best in the state.
17 USA – Most Valuable Player:
Sophia Agee Sophia Agee 6'1" | RS St. Agnes | 2022 State TX [2022] 6-1 Outside (HS: St. Agnes Academy/Club: Houston Juniors /Verbal: Uncommitted)
Sophie comes in ranked as the 39th best volleyball player in the state of Texas according to our Prep Dig rankings in the class of 2022. In two previous articles, we stated, “She plays for the vaunted volleyball club out of H-town, Houston Juniors . They are nationally known and regularly place volleyball players at the next level. Her school team, St. Agnes Academy has regularly won their district and gone deep into the state playoffs in their TAPPS league. She is a six-rotation player who stars for her team both in the back row and front row. She is a pure passer out of serve receive in every rotation. I love the way she holds her form after contact. She is one to watch as she would be able to make any college team better in any position. I am excited to cover this young lady as she blossoms under the great training at HJV. Her play on the court has earned her a place on the AVCA Phenom watch list for 2020. She has also earned TAPPS 6A District 4 1st Team All State. She helped her St. Agnes team make it all the way to the TAPPS 6A State title game this past season. They ultimately lost to Liberty Christian but they will be back with a vengeance next season as Sophia will look to lead her team in her senior season.” Sophie just showed just how valuable she is against the best competition in the nation over four hard-fought days. We will be moving her up in the rankings during our next update. Stay tuned to see where she falls soon!
Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite teams and athletes. If you have anyone you think we should watch out for, please shoot me an email with some info on them at nov8vb@yahoo.com. Also don’t forget to help these kids get more exposure by sharing our stories with your friends. Help us help them by simply retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook. Thanks for following Texas Family!