AJV 15s Stand Tall at Lone Star

Texas Tornados Mizuno entered the final day of 15 Open action as the most high profile of a half dozen loaded Texas teams plus Rockwood Thunder and Colorado Juniors chasing the Lone Star Classic championship. They had a fresh #1 ranking in the nation and an impressive second place finish in the 16s Division of the Tour of Texas. But when all the fireworks were over, it was Austin Juniors staking its claim as the state’s top team and hoisting the championship trophy.

The Tornados, meanwhile, left Dallas wondering what hit them after Dallas Skyline and Texas Advantage both swept the Houston group that had spent the last four months terrorizing any 15s team in their path, not to mention plenty of 16s and 17s teams.

If there was any question just how deep and talented this age group is, it was answered Sunday.

“Look at these teams -- Skyline, TAV, Victory, the Tornados and the others,” said Austin coach Michael Garcia, as his team celebrated their 25-22, 20-25, 15-7 win over Skyline in the finals. “Any of them could be a Top 10 team in the nation.

And that begins with the AJs, coming off a first place finish at the Big South Qualifier earlier this month and sporting a lineup that has it all -- athleticism, power, terrific ball control and defense. . . If they had any shortcoming against their fellow Texans it was in the size category.

“I thought we were tall when I got this team but then we get here and we’re one of the shorter teams (in the final eight),” said Garcia.

That didn’t matter on Sunday.

Gold pool play actually started on Saturday night and Austin survived a 21-25, 25-16, 15-12 battle with Advanced Volleyball Amarillo. Sunday they completed pool play with sweeps of Colorado Juniors and TAV to advance to the championship match.

Meanwhile, the other Gold pool had erupted in turmoil. It started on Saturday with Victory taking down North Texas rival Skyline 21-25, 25-23, 15-10. And when Skyline shocked the Tornados 27-25, 25-11 in the final match of pool play, that threw it into a thee-way tie. When all the tie-breakers, including a one-game Tornados win over Victory, had been settled, Skyline had advanced to the championship match, the Tornados took second in the pool and Victory third.

That set up a championship showdown between two teams already holding Open bids (Skyline won Pacific Northwest), but from the start it was clear that it didn’t matter. The teams were out for bragging rights and began trading big time blows from the start.

At 15-14 in game one, however, Amy Neal and high flying Sierra Patrick took control as Austin built a commanding 22-17 lead. But Skyline answered behind tough net play by Lauren Douglass and Tori Bates. A combo block by Douglass and Andie Malloy tied it at 22. At that point Austin setter Cassie Wang turned to Kathryn Beals and Paige Caridi. Candi’s blast through the Skyline block finished a 3-0 run and gave Austin game one.

Game two was all Skyline as LSVB HS Newcomer of the Year Matalee Reed dominated the net with five blocks, block assists or buried overpasses in an early 6-2 run that put Skyline in control. Cathlyn Janak, Bates and Lauren English then took turns, scoring from all over the court as Skyline expanded its lead to 21-13.

Cassidy Vaughn, Beals, Wang and Caridi led a late Austin rally to cut the lead to 22-18, but two blasts by Bates spaced around an ace by Reed closed out the 25-20 win to force game three.

At this point, a huge highlight of the match was the play of liberos Mackenzie Mayo (Austin) and Shane Peters (Skyline) who were all over the back court making one-handed saves, diving recoveries and generally frustrating the big hitters on both teams.

With Neal unstoppable from the left and delivering five kills, Austin led 8-4 at the crossover in game three. Then Patrick took over, blasting away on the quick several times on sets from Dana Faught as Austin expanded its lead to 14-7 and Skyline’s ball control completely disappeared. Caridi delivered match point with a blast to the back left corner and Austin had their second qualifier championship to go with a 10th at Colorado Crossroads early in the season.

“Colorado was good for us because we were trying to find our identity,” said Garcia. “It was that tournament where we finally started to figure things out.”

In the third place match featuring Texas Advantage Asics and the Tornados Mizuno, TAV took game one 25-19 but it looked as if the Tornados might force three until, at 14-14, the north Texans took control. Or rather middle Emily Ehrle took control of the net with two blocks, a buried overpass and a buried quick from Tanna Aljoe. That all came during a 8-1 TAV run that also included an ace by Shelby Sullivan and a blast by Elizabeth Fortado. Chloe CollinsMylan Eugene tried to keep the Tornados close, but TAV was on a roll. An Aljoe dump and a Kayla Reinhart ace gave TAV match point, which Sutton Sunstrumwas more than happy to deliver with a blast from the middle. 

Fifth place went to Victory as Adrien Richburg, Kim Meyers and 6-3 Kierra Holst closed out a 15-10 win in a one game match to 15 as both teams had already picked up their Open bids.