This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag’s look at 10 things in club volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully interest you. We finish up our look at the 2024 club volleyball season by recapping the 15s through 17s age groups at USA Volleyball’s Junior National Championships, which concluded on July 11 in Las Vegas:
• The 17s age group this club season was ridiculous. So much talent! Milwaukee Sting 17 Gold won Triple Crown in February. Houston Skyline 17 Royal entered four national qualifiers and won them all! 1st Alliance 17 Gold lent two of its stars to the 18 Gold team and almost won Junior Nationals in 18 Open in April!
Despite there being superstar players and elite teams around every corner in this age divisions, USA Volleyball’s Junior National Championships, which concluded last week after a nine-day run in Las Vegas, confirmed that AZ Storm Elite 17 Thunder stands above the rest.
For the second straight year, Storm captured the Open national championship for teams whose players largely comprise the Class of 2025 (16 Open last year; 17 Open this season). For the second straight year, the team did it by going 11-0 at Junior Nationals. Storm has had a lot of great teams over the past dozen years, but this core group will go down as the club’s best to date.
AZ Storm has probably the best outside hitting duo in the country in Teraya Sigler and Devyn Wiest. Sigler, a Nebraska recruit and Arizona’s current Gatorade HS POY, was named MVP and was dominant. Wiest, a Utah commit, also earned All-Tournament honors. Both played every point of the tournament for four days straight. The team also has an elite libero in Izzy Mahaffey, two tremendous middles in Kenna Cogill and Dyborrah Johnson and an athletic, active setter in Kaia Pixler.
And yet, despite all of that talent and more, Storm barely survived a final day that veteran head coach Aaron Payne called “probably the most intense day of volleyball I have ever been a part of.”
The first match on Day 4 – the quarterfinals – came versus a WAVE 17 Juliana team that won the opening match of the first pool, then lost four straight to limp into Day 3, barely staying in the advancing group. The San Diego club then won three matches in a row, including a sweep of a CUVC 17 Open team that really distinguished itself for how hard it played, the trouble it gave…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…