Tawa’s Club Volleyball Dots: Recapping finals of the ultra-competitive Triple Crown NIT

This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in club volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots every Tuesday through Junior Nationals this summer (all photos by John Tawa):

• In this edition of Dots, the focus is on the Triple Crown NIT, which went from an idea nine years ago to the most competitive tournament, bar none, in the country today.

Triple Crown, which hosted the nation’s best club teams and virtually every college coach in the country, finished up a three-day run in Kansas City Monday with some riveting finals.

Many college coaches remarked how this felt like a return to normalcy after two COVID-interrupted club seasons. The star of the show, of course, was the overwhelming talent on display, which comes when you bring 23 of the top 25 clubs in the nation to the same place for a three-day block party.

•  The 18s championship match featured Munciana 18 Samurai, a perennial national power and last year’s AAU national champions at 18 Open, against Sunshine 18 LA, the USAV Junior National champion at 17 Open last summer.

The final was everything one could have hoped for, with each team having opportunities to win the match in a compelling third set.

Muncie prevailed, 17-15 in the third, on an Ella Bostic solo stuff. The ending was sudden and unexpected, as it appeared the teams would go on trading salvos until they were made to go home.

Munciana head coach Mike Lingenfelter, a legend in the Mideast, said he was truly surprised that his team came out on top. He admitted that he was preparing to speak to his team about how to learn from a loss.

“I didn’t think we were really ready to play on a stage of that magnitude,” Lingenfelter said. “We’re young and genetically challenged. We’re not a tall team but we fought long enough and hard enough to get home.”

Earlier in the day, as Samurai was dominating the likes of Club V 18 Ren Reed and PVA 18 Elite to reach the finals, I made this note while watching them play:

“At Samurai, winning is expected but never taken for granted.”

That attitude was in evidence in a final where no team every led by more than three points in any set.

Sunshine, whose Monday included a quarterfinal win over nemesis Houston Skyline 18 Royal, took the first set 25-23. The Los Angeles-based team rallied from down 23-21 to win at deuce, 25-23. Duke-bound RS Kerry Keefe, a force all weekend, started with rally with a back row strike. MB Lucia Scalamandre sandwiched a net ace around Munciana miscues to complete the first set comeback.

Samurai won a back-and-forth second set, 25-22. Munciana trailed out of the gate but rallied behind the defense of Ramsey Gary and the play up front from Lovie Wallace and Eva Hudson to take a 9-7 lead. Hudson, who had 10 kills in the first set, continued her assault – from all points on the court — as Muncie built a 15-12 lead. Sunshine went ahead, 17-16, but three straight points by Muncie, including a Wallace kill and ace from DS Londynn Betts, gave Samurai a lead it would not relinquish. Kimora Whetstone’s quick attack dusted the sideline to give the Indiana squad two set points at 24-22. Samurai won on the next rally when Keefe got tangled up with setter Kelly Belardi on a scramble play and got called for a double, perhaps anticipatorily because it appeared clean.

Game 3 was a shootout between Hudson for Muncie and OH Elia Rubin for Sunshine. Rubin, the VolleyballMag.com National HS POY headed to Stanford, delivered monster kills to give Sunshine an 8-7 lead midway through. Sunshine kept a 1-2 point lead into the late stages, when a serving error set the stage for a Samurai rally. A double contact call (not on the setter) followed, knotting the score. Munciana made it three in a row on Wallace’s one-footed attack in front of the setter Bostic. Keefe tied the score at 13s on a blistering back-row attack. Sunshine went ahead on the next point, as Scalamandre blocked Hudson’s back row attack.

Staring at match point against, Bostic went to Hudson again and the 6-1 OH delivered with what must have been her 200th kill of the match to send the set into extra points. Keefe scored on a sweet tip over the block to give Sunshine a second match point, but Muncie countered when Bostic found Wallace in transition and the middle scored against the flow to tie the score once more. Hudson then powered one through the block to give Munciana its only match point, setting the stage for Bostic’s big title-clinching block.  

“That’s a good team,” Lingenfelter said of Sunshine after the match. “I made that comment that at some point someone’s got to throw a punch. It’s got to be a street fight because those guys are so good.”

Asked who the difference was in the match, Lingenfelter said:

“Hudson. Hudson. Hudson. The last possession, we were going to Hudson She got us to the dance, so I’m going to dance with her. She’s as good as any player I’ve ever had and I’ve had some pretty good ones. She’s a very gutty kid but she’s has a great volleyball IQ. She feels the game. I think the special ones do. Her volleyball IQ is second to none.”

• Two surprise teams, Tri-State Elite 18 Blue and PVA 18 Elite, finished tied for third. Tri-State is a scrappy team that got nice play from Lauren Otten, Lucy Trump, Raelyn Sanders and others in a nice quarterfinal win over OT T 18 Chad, which had upset tournament favorite, loaded A5 18-Marc, in the round of 16 the day before.

PVA got to the semifinals with a thrilling win over AZ Storm Elite 18 Thunder. Storm got nice play from Jordan Middleton and Ella Lomigora, but PVA had the best of the play in the third set. Alexandra Dvorak had the first of her three Game 3 kills to start the final set. Ava Martin also had three kills, including the game winner off of a feed from Davis Guetterman to clinch advancement.

“We have a no quit attitude,” said coach Justin Franklin. “That’s the best thing for us. After struggling in the second set, we buckled down and played our game and let things happen for us. Our striving goal to be one of the best in the country every every single time we step on that court. I’m proud of how these kids fight every single day. This group has a lot of passion and heart and they know the ultimate goal is to be one of the best teams in the country. To do that, you have to play the best and beat the best.

• The 17s final gave us the latest edition of “Ping v Jing” and proved to be great theater. Ping Cao is the head coach of Drive Nation 17 Red and a kingmaker whose teams compete for (and win) national titles every year, whether he’s with Sport Performance, TAV or, this year, Drive Nation. Jing Hou is the longtime 17s coach for A5 Mizuno 17-Jing, a team that every year overflows with talent and is seemingly always in the medal mix at AAUs and Junior Nationals.

Both teams this year feature abundant offensive firepower. The teams proved that by throwing haymakers at once another until one final salvo from A5 OH Jurnee Robinson clinched the win, in three, for the Atlanta team.

Let me say this: Robinson, a 6-0 OH and LSU commit, is special. From rural South Carolina and on a lower-profile club team a year ago, Robinson was probably the most dynamic, influential player I watched at Triple Crown. What a difference maker in six rotations! She plays with great intentionality. Wow was she fun to watch!

Robinson showed huge power in the kill that gave A5 a 14-9 lead in the first set. Drive Nation, which may have been flat coming off of a huge semifinal win over TAV 17 Black, the team Ping presided over for years and the defending age group Junior National champions, in the semifinals; got back into the set on a block and kill from powerful middle Reese Robins and tied the set at 15-15 on a seam shot from OH Bailey Miller. Drive never went head, however, and A5 regained control of the set at 19-16 on an ace from setter Taylor Pecht, which followed a Robinson stuff block. One final kill from Robinson, off of a dig from Arya Jue and set from Rebecca Watkins, gave A5 the set, 25-21.

Now, Ping has had the upper hand in the many matchups with Jing, winning all but about three, so a Game 2 comeback for Drive Nation not only was expected; it materialized. Robinson’s kill gave A5 its only lead at 8-7, but otherwise the set belonged to the Dallas side. Miller and Robins were very effective, as were Leah Ford and Nicole Mauser, in helping Drive build a 14-9 lead. Back to back aces later from Lauryn Hill helped seal the 25-19 win that sent the match to a third set.

Jing said after the match that going with the same rotation in Game 2 as he did in the first game was ineffective, so her switched the middle and right side hitters to start the final stanza. It worked wonders as Milana Thornton came up with a huge block to stake A5 to the early lead.

“That was really important,” Jing said. “You get first point and everybody gets more energy.”

A5 tacked on another point, then another. The Atlanta team scored the first five points, including a Robinson stuff and a tandem block between Robinson and Thornton, to open up a 5-0 lead. Robinson added a kill, Thornton’s serve hit the tape hard and rolled over for an ace, and four contacts on Drive Nation gave A5 its biggest lead at 8-1. A massive block from Ford, two Mauser kills and one from Robins got Drive Nation back into the set at 12-8, but any comeback hopes were snuffed by another Thornton block. Leading 14-8, with six match points in hand, A5 ceded one to a Halle Schroder kill, but won the title on the next point, when Robinson rose high and hit hard, leaving no doubt about the team taking home the trophy.

A5’s win was tempered, however, when Robinson crumpled to the floor following the kill. It looked like an ankle — God forbid a knee — but now appears might have been a shin injury. Robinson was able to get up and eventually join her team in the celebration. We are thinking good thoughts about the extent of the injury and hoping for a speedy return to the court for this budding superstar.

• NKYVC 16-1 Tsunami used pure grit and determination to reach the 16s championship match. Playing without both outsides, Alivia Skidmore, who missed the tournament with an injury; and Sydney Barrett, who got hurt during play on Monday; Tsunami found a way – by playing inspired defense and riding MB Julia Hunt – to overcome stacked TAV 16 Black in the quarterfinals. This is the same TAV team that upset Dynasty 16 Black on Saturday to open the tournament.

It’s funny. On Saturday, college coaches who watched both NKYVC and TAV play their opening matches opined that TAV was on another level completely. NKYVC told them differently on Monday.

“We started talking about trusting in ourselves,” said coach Tyler Collins. “We developed the mentality of ‘you have to go through us to win.’ As long as we do what we’ve worked on we’ll be fine. I can’t preach enough about the team-first mentality of this team.”

NKYVC reach the championship match by taking out OT 16 T Jason, 16-14 in the third, in the semifinals. DS Kaleigh Frietch, forced to play all the way around because of the injuries, scored the clincher on an overpass swing that seemed to surprise both the defense and Frietch herself.

• NKYVC’s finals opponent was Dynasty, the 2021 15 Open Junior National champions. The Kansas City squad return most of the pieces that made it a national champ last summer, but this year is running with a new setter, Reese Messer, a freshman and mesmerizing athlete. She proved to be a difference maker in the only championship match that was over in two sets.

Truth be told, everybody on Dynasty was incredible in the finals, especially in a first set that head coach Cassie Rockers described as “pretty perfect.” Dynasty won that set, 25-9, and took the second, 25-18, against an NKYVC team that struggled to put the ball away and seemed spent after two grueling three-setters preceding this match.

Now, before we focus on Dynasty’s side of the ball, let’s stop to give credit to NKYVC’s seven healthy players. Libero Elizabeth Tabeling, Frietch, setter Abby Yoder, pins Macy Lentz and Lilly Gillespie played their hearts out on defense. The effort, despite being so tired, was inspiring. Add in the front court play of Hunt, the team’s superstar, and vocal, spirited middle Lilian Hamburg, and it’s evident why Tsunami was in the final.

Dynasty started off the match getting points from its two superstar outsides, Skyler Pierce and Carlie Cisneros, and neither let up throughout the match. Both were especially effective scoring out of the back row and both played great defense. Middle Jada Ingram, another newcomer, was fantastic at the net, as was fellow middle Piper Newton. Freshman RS Abigail Mullen scored regularly with her heavy, heavy arm and libero Ryan McAleer started all of it with a steady, mistake-free presence in the back row.

Then there was Messer, an astounding athlete who ran the show effortlessly and made the points come easily. At 5-11, she is that good and reminds me of another Kansas City setter, Madison Lilley, who led Kentucky to an NCAA Division I title in the spring of 2021.

“I am incredibly pleased,” Rockers said. “We got better every day. We started the weekend on the loss and could have let that define us. Instead they responded. I’m really proud of them.”

• Did you know that, at one point last year, the team playing this year as 1st Alliance 15 Gold was 47-0? That team finished top five in 14s at Triple Crown and at Junior Nationals. It’s no wonder, then, that the Chicago-area squad went 9-0 and won the 15s division at Triple Crown.

The run in KC wasn’t without its challenges. Despite being undefeated, the team went to three twice before the finals and had to respond after losing Game 2 of the championship match to OT 15 T Randy, a team it swept on Day 1.

Kills from Keira O’Donnell and MaTaia Lawson late in the third set helped 1st Alliance get the win.

“I’ve been trying to pull out of them the grit and hard work and they showed that today,” said 1st Alliance head coach Jocelynn Birks. “They relied on that hard work to get them this win.

OT, a team that has sisters Isabella Mogridge and Josephine Hensley, sisters of players on the terrific 18s team, battled back from being trounced in the first set to win an overtime second set. Kaylee Peper and Maggie Dostic had the final kills to force a third set.

Birks said that her message to 1st Alliance between sets was simple.

“I try to remind them that they’re in control of what happens on our side,” she said. “They just need to be steady and smooth on our side and I think they did a better job of that in the third set.”

The win finished off a great tournament for the 1st Alliance Club. In addition to the win at 15s, the 17 Gold team coached by Danielle Mikos finished third, losing only to Drive Nation, each time in three sets. That team features some outstanding talent, like libero Gigi Navarrete, outsides Kennedy Wagner and Grace Egan and setter Jordan Heatherly.

OT Tampa also had a great tournament. OTVA had three of its branches in Kansas City, but the Tampa side is emerging as the most powerful this year after the 18s, led by Liv Mogridge and Victoria Hensley, finished in a tie for seventh at 6-2 and the 16s, led by Taylor Parks and Bailey Higgins, tied for third with a 7-1 record.

• Scanning the other results from Triple Crown, shout out to Sunshine 17 LA, which won two deuce sets to knock out Legacy 17-Adidas on Sunday. Olivia Babcock and Torrey Stafford, two studs committed to Pitt, led the way. Sunshine was subsequently eliminated by OT 17 J John, a strong team featuring middle Zeta Washington and setter Jessica Shattles.

Kudos also to WAVE 16 Brennan, which suffered a horrific injury to its right side on Day 1 yet managed to finish in a tie for fifth overall. Nikole Egan, Maya Evens, Camden Bolane and Amanda Saeger were among several to shine.

Finally, let’s give some recognition to Houston Skyline 15 Royal, which battled tooth and nail with eventual champion 1st Alliance in the quarterfinals in three before losing. Skyline went to powerful outside Ella Lewis often in its Game 2 comeback to force a third game, but saw Abigail Vander Wal and Jenna Kolosta take over late for 1st Alliance, which scored the final seven points of the match to rally from an 11-8 deficit.

• Kansas City would not have been nearly as enjoyable without the selflessness of new Temple University head coach Linda Hampton-Keith, the TCU staff headed by new coach Jason Williams and the Keck Family of 1st Alliance fame. Each got me to and from my airport hotel without my having to use an Uber.

Hampton-Keith, a great friend from way back in the 2000s when she coached her sisters at PK Yonge HS in Gainesville, was especially generous in picking me up from the airport at 1 a.m. after my hotel shut down its shuttle two hours before. TCU’s staff, which included Kyle Luongo and Morgan Thomas, shared a meal with me and three rides, including one where Williams drove me in to downtown when he wasn’t even going there! The Kecks, whom I have known since the early 2000s, shuttled me back to KCI after the tournament was over and while they were racing to catch their flight to Chi-town.

I will forever be indebted…

• President’s Day Weekend has always been a huge weekend for club volleyball. At one time, the tournaments to attend included one at Sports Performance in Chicago, one in Dayton and, of course, the Las Vegas Classic. Those tournaments, and new ones that sprang up in Omaha, St. Louis and Washington D.C., have all seemingly taken a back seat to Triple Crown.

Need proof? Twenty-three of the top 25 clubs were in Kansas City for the NIT. The only exceptions were Circle City, which was in St. Louis at its hosted tourney; and Metro VBC of Washington, D.C., which stayed home to play in the Capitol Hill Classic operated by its founder.

How did those clubs do? Circle City won the 15, 16, 17 and 18 Open divisions (they may have won others, too; we only report on those age groups) in St. Louis with a combined record of 38-1.

Metro did Circle even better. They won the same divisions at Capitol Hill with a combined mark of 36-0!

Until next time …

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John Tawa