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.
• After what seems like several weeks off for prom, graduation, rehab and rest, there was some honest-to-goodness girls club volleyball played over the long Memorial Day Weekend.
Some.
Not a lot.
And certainly not like two decades ago, when Memorial Day Weekend signaled the start of the push for the nation’s elite teams to get ready for the end of the season.
This past holiday weekend in 2023, the best volleyball wasn’t being played in Florida, Texas, California or the Great Lakes Center in Illinois. Instead, it was in Milwaukee at the Milwaukee Sting Volleyball Center, where 60 teams, total, competed in the 14-17s age groups.
• 1st Alliance 17 Gold went undefeated to capture the 17 Open division at the Prep Dig Gauntlet in Milwaukee. The team I have ranked seventh nationally , playing for the first time since Easter, came back onto the court, sharp, focused and energetic. Libero Ava Falduto, back from the Pan Am Cup, led the team with 15 aces, 84 digs and also had 15 assists. A goal for the tournament was to improve the team’s setter/middle connection. Mission accomplished as Ellery Rees contributed 32 kills. The pins stayed hot, with Grace Nelson getting 62 kills, Ellie White tallying 55 and Calli Kenny chipping in with 40.
“The team’s collective first contact was elite, passing a 2.43 and accumulating 54 aces,” noted coach Danielle Mikos. “17 Gold also finished with 257 total digs. It was a complete team effort for the weekend’s success.”
• Milwaukee Sting 16 Gold avenged two of its three Power Pool losses in bracket play to take the 16 Open division at the Gauntlet. Dave Bayer’s team avenged Northern Lights 16-1 in the semifinals and Michigan Elite 16 Mizuno in the championship match,
Sting had not played since the Northeast Qualifier four weeks ago and didn’t play clean the first two days, Bayer said. But after a captain-led, players-only meeting, the team came back Monday with a different mindset. The team won its quarterfinal in two over 1st Alliance 16 Silver, rallied from eight down in Game 2 to dispatch Lights in straight sets, then rallied again from down…
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