Page 1 of 15 Hits (and misses) at Tour qualifier. Written by Scott White Wednesday, 23 January 2013 As usual, the Tour of Texas Qualifier provided a lot of hits and a few misses. Here's a look at some of the highlights from last weekend's 16-18s action, Amy Gullick sets the Centex offense during 16s action at the Tour of Texas Qualifier last weekend in San Antonio.
Page 2 of 15 Photos by Gerald Castillo Ever since the Tour of Texas switched to its current format a few years back in order to get the top North Texas clubs to compete again, the Tour Qualifier has lost a lot of its drama. With 12 teams guaranteed a spot in Division 1, the opening round of the Tour is really all about positioning and checking out who has improved from last season and looks like they will be able to live up to expectations. And in 16s, it's also about identifying the big names of tomorrow as this is the age where the talent separation begins and the next wave of stars begin to emerge. For that reason -- and since we're already much more familiar with the 17s and 18s -- we spend most of our time at Tour qualifier tracking the 16s. And based on what we saw in San Antonio, this is going to be a terrific class. The TAV defense was in shutdown mode for most of the weekend. TAV entered the weekend as the top seed and they did nothing to disappoint, rolling through their five matches with hardly a hiccup. Anna Walsh, Morgan Johnson and Katie Nicholson give the team a nice combination of size and quickness in the middle while Sheridan Ralston, Emily Clayton and Madison Drescher provided a lot of pop on the outside when we were watching them.
Page 3 of 15 They also are strong on the back row with two players -- Katie Karbo and Maddie Jones -- wearing the libero. We wouldn't have been able to pick one over the other either. SA Force's Devon Sadosky tries to track down a TAV blast. Our first chance to see them in action came against San Antonio Force, a team that had already had some success at local tournaments. Force has a very nice setter in Karley York while Caroline Coupet and Maidson Slaughter can deliver some big kills in the middle. But it wasn't enough to take down TAV. After TAV rolled in the first set, tough serving by Laura Cruz and clutch kills and blocks by Karley York and Coupet kept Force closer in the second. Just when it looked like Force was on the verge of making things interesting, however, Mykah Wilson buried Kylie Pickrell's set to complete the TAV sweep.
Page 4 of 15 Woodland Wave's Rachel Reed (21) unloads. TAV's biggest challenge of the weekend came from #4 seed Woodlands Wave Under Armour, which had stumbled against MadFrog Critzer to start the weekend then took down Force, Victory Elite and Centex National to carry a 3-1 record into the final match. Wave is definitely an Open caliber team and with TAV opening the match with some unusually sloppy play and what seemed a total lack of interest, Wave jumped at the chance to take down the top seeds.
Page 5 of 15 Courtney Quinn, Julianne Malek, Rachel Reed and Victoria Harris took turns unloading and Malek also threw up a tough block as the Wave handed TAV its first set loss of the weekend 25-19. TAV woke up in time for the second set and any hopes of an upset were quickly doused as Walsh, Johnson, Wilson and Madison Drescher led TAV to a quick lead, forcing a third set. And it was all TAV as Walsh, OH Brianna Hoelting and some wicked serving by Karbo sparked a 10-0 closing run to finish out the match 15-4.
Page 6 of 15 Morgan Reed (1) sets the Skyline attack on the way to a 5-0 finish. There was more drama in the second pool where #2 seed Royal Tigers and #3 seed Dallas Skyline Roshambo Royal both took care of their first four foes to set up a showdown of undefeated for first in the pool. It was a rematch of the North Texas MLK semifinals a week earlier won by the Royal Tigers in a sweep. There would be no sweep this time. The match featured some borderline spectacular digs by Skyline libero Katelyn Blake and Royal Tigers counterpart Ashley Rich. With Brookah Palmer and Kathryn Keenan throwing up a huge block and Kaitlyn Blake, Cathryn Cheek and Shalom Ifeanyichukwu leading the attack, Skyline jumped on their North Texas rivals quick. Micaya White was a force on the front row and the back in leading The Royal Tigers to a 5-1 finish.
Page 7 of 15 Explsoive Micaya White, Alexis MacLean and Aniah Philo tried to keep the Tigers close but it was Palmer, Ifeanyichukwu and Kennan down the stretch as Skyline took the opening set. Set two was all Tigers, as White was dominating and Haley Tippett had some impressive blasts from the left early. The third set was a back and forth battle until, at 6-6, Kennan and setter Emma Smith led a 9-5 run to close out the match and the 5-0 finish for Skyline. Another team that looked strong was Dallas Premier Black, which finished 3-2 but gave both Skyline and Royal Tigers all they could handle. The match with Royal Tigers may have been the most entertaining of the weekend, featuring two teams who stood toe-to-toe and traded punches without backing down. Both sets went into OT with the Tigers ultimately surviving 26-24, 27-25.
Page 8 of 15 Premier's Brenna McIlroy hits the court while trying to save a shot. Premier's Brenna McIlroy was a force early in the first set with Jordan Eades delivering late and libero Emmaline Stockton putting on a show. Liz Boyd also added some timely kills, but ultimately the Tigers had too much Philo at key points late. Eleanor Watson, Eades and McIlroy had premier in charge for most of the second set, but the Tigers have a strong, confident setter in Riley MacDonald and she turned to White, who was overpowering down the stretch. MadFrog Critzer also went 3-2, losing only to San Antonio Force and TAV while knocking off Woodlands Wave, Centex and Vicotry,
Page 9 of 15 They always seemed to be playing when we were somewhere else, so we didn't get a chance to catch their matches but there will be plenty of opportunity at the second stop on the Tour. Willowbrook's Ashley Fritcher (66) can't find an opening in the block of Premier's Jordan Eades (3) and Kandyce Freeman (5). A team that only went 2-3 but is one to keep an eye on is Willowbrook Red. They fell to Skyline, Royal and Premier, but Emily Thorson, Bridget Nelligan and Ashley Fritcher had dominating moments at the net while athletic, little Tabitha Brown adds pop from the left and has a wicked serve. Vivian Tipps and Codi Lee play a mean back row while Lindsey Miller and Morgan Schrader did a nice job of running the offense. While all of this was going on in the pre-qualified pools, there were teams actually fighting for positions on the Tour. AVA Rox, TAV Blue, Dallas Skyline Black and Texas Image Ray all survived the exhausting process to earn places in Division 1.
Page 10 of 15 SA Magic, ACE Smack, Texas Torandos Mizuno, Alamo Kaepa Premier, Texas Eclipse Green, Tejas Nfinity, Houston Juniors Elite and Houston Skyline Roshambo earned berths in Division 2. 17s Skyline's Camryn Freiberg (21) goes around the Tejas block of Lauren Mills (9) and Liz Pennington (2) during 17s action. While the top 16s were playing up to expectations, there was a lot of turmoil in the 17s.
Page 11 of 15 The biggest story was Houston Skyline Roshambo, which was seeded last among the 12 pre-qualified teams. In what turned out to be a massive bit of underseeding, the team blew through its pool without dropping a set. "I honestly had very few, if any expectations, heading into the weekend," said coach Todd Kolkhorst. "I saw a lot of the pre qualified teams play last year and definitely knew about their successes at qualifiers and the National Championships, so I knew we were going to get the opportunity to play some really tough teams. I mainly wanted the girls to play hard and I was excited to see them compete like they did against some of the best competition in the state." Compete they did, sweeping #2 seed TAV Black, Houston Stellar, MadFrog Tonga, Austin Mizuno and Dallas Skyline Black. It was a total team effort but it's hard to overlook the play of steer Courtney Eckenrode, who was a master at setting the speed and tempo off the offense and continually kept opposing defenses off balance. Libero Ashley Dusek, Kylie Spencer and Keandra McCardell led a scrappy defensive effort that frustrated opponents by extending rally after rally. Meanwhile the all-around play of Amanda Coursey's and the attack of OH Megan Hohlt, and middles Kendall Covington and Caroline Labanowski led an impressive Skyline attack. "We served really well this weekend which allowed us to keep teams out of system, making it easier on our block and defense to keep us in rallies," said Kolkhorst. "We also passed very well which allowed us to have several different options to set and keep our opponents on their toes. We are excited about the results from this weekend, but playing well early in the season is not the ultimate goal for this team. We have high expectations." Skyline wasn't the only impressive 17s team on the weekend. Houston Juniors Elite, seeded fifth overall, won the other pool by taking down Texas Image, Alamo Kaepa Premier, Tejas Nfinity and Woodlands Wave Under Armour. It's a team loaded with firepower and all of it was on display, with Mimi Eugene, Olivia Chatman and Brittany Gilpin looking dominating at the times we saw them play.
Page 12 of 15 Alamo and Texas Image had a terrific battle won by the home town in three (15-13) The most frustrated team had to be Texas Image Mizuno Ray, which started the weekend by pushing Houston Juniors to the limit before falling in a wild 25-23, 26-28, 15-13 shootout.
Page 13 of 15 Image isn't big, but has some serious firepower in Carlene Hess, Brooke Manley, Morgan Mutti, who can go over or through the block, and Haley Harrison, a 5-9 powder keg who can sky and has a whip of an arm. They also feature a scrappy defense with an uncanny ability to get the ball back over the net from seemingly impossible angles, led by libero Stephanie Chavez. After the disappointing loss to Houston Juniors, Image dropped another 15-13 three setter to Alamo to start the weekend 0-2. They would not drop another set for a 3-2 finish that easily could have been 4-1 or even 5-0 with a little but of luck. Tejas libero Kori Ortiz goes flying trying to track down a Skyline blast. Top-seeded Skyline, meanwhile, struggled to a 3-2 finish. It started with a tough three set win over Tejas Nfinity in which Kate Dicken, Sarah Linder, Kayla Knaust and explosive Lauren Mills gave the North Texas powerhouse all they could handle. Ultimately, Ericjka Timberlake, Omotola Itiola, Kylie Long and Camryn Freiberg came up with clutch kills and blocks for Skyline while libero Emily Harris made some borderline spectacular saves as Skyline survived the match. But that seemed to set the tone for the weekend. Nothing was coming easy among the 17s.
Page 14 of 15 From a qualifying standpoint, Texas Tornados Mizuno, ACE Smack Black, AP Eclectic and Dallas Premier Black all won their way to Division 1 berths with the pre-qualified teams for the second stop of the Tour. Division 2 qualifiers were Texas Eclipse Green, Alliance Fusion, Austin Navy, Houston Juniors National, Forth Bend Fire Mizuno, TAV Blue. Houston Skyline Molten and Willowbrook Red. 18s While the 17s were a mess, it was a different story in 18s where North Texas powers TAV Black and Dallas Skyline Roshambo Royal lived up to billing and rolled through their pools. Top-seeded TAV dropped only one set in putting away Dallas Premier Black, Austin Juniors Mizuno, Tejas Nfinity, Texas Tornados Mizuno and Alliance Fusion. Regan McGuire and Chiaka Ogbogu were dominating in the middle, averaging more than three blocks per set and hitting over.500 for the weekend. The back row was equally impressive with Katie Dunlap, Bailey Martin, Jordan Anderson, Sarita Mikals, Maggie Joyce and Cassidy Pickrell combining for a 2.6 passing average for the tournament. That set up a solid attack led by Anderson, who was perfect with 10 kills on 10 swings, Ebony Nwanebu, Erica Bohannon, Mikals and Joyce. All hit over.250 for the tournament. "I was hoping to experiment with more lineups and switching around on middles, rights and outsides with setters and we experimented some," said coach John Sample. "Our success was directly related to excellent serving and serve receive. We have an extremely potent offense, but it all starts with consistent serve and serve receive and it was significantly better than last weekend." Last weekend, TAV fell to local rival Skyline in the finals of the MLK and the Skyline roll continued in San Antonio, where the #2 seeds didn't drop a set. "After beating TAV last weekend, the players had a lot of confidence heading into this weekend," said coach Jason Williams. Skyline's domination included sweeps of Texas Image, TAV Blue, AP Gazelle, Houston Juniors Elite and #3 seed Willowbrook Red. Kimmy Gardiner had a big weekend both on the back row and on the attack, hitting from both left and right. And Briana Holman stepped up in a big way on the block and and with her explosive power. "I thought the keys to success for this weekend was our serve receive, blocking schemes, and how we adjusted to a brand new lineup," said Williams. "This was
Page 15 of 15 the first time that we had all healthy bodies, so we were going to be playing with a lineup that we had not even really practiced with yet. Considering all the injuries we have had and the lack of practices with a healthy roster, I'm pleased that we have been able to play at a decent level in the first two tournaments." Tejas Nfinity and AP Gazelle also had strong weekends, finishing 4-1. From a qualifying standpoint, AVA Rox, Dallas Summit Mike, Woodlands Wave UA and Alamo Kaepa Premier won berths in Division 1 on the second stop of the Tour while San Antonio Force, Southwest Asics, SA Magic, AVVC, Impact, Dallas Skyline Black, Excel National and Houston Skyline earned berths in Division 2. Complete Results Tour Home Page Last Updated ( Wednesday, 23 January 2013 ) Close Window