Indianapolis, Ind. (June 27, 2016) – The first day of championship matches are in the books at the 2016 USA Volleyball Girls’ Junior National Championship at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis.
The OT 14 Asics Red (Florida) won the first title of the tournament in the 14 Open division by defeating Mintonette Sports (Ohio Valley), 25-23, 25-23.
“It feels amazing,” said team captain Cierra Jenkins. “My team and I worked so hard for this all season. We didn’t win necessarily all of the tournaments, but the two that counted, we won it all.”
To win in Indy, “we all had to have energy and then we just had to crush every point. We couldn’t give up or let up on some teams; we just kept killing it.”
OT 14 Asics Red was born from a merger of two major clubs in Florida, the Orlando Volleyball Academy and the Tampa Bay Volleyball Academy in the summer of 2015. The club now has approximately 100 teams and 1,000 athletes.
The 14 Open team went 11-0 in the tournament after losing their very first set in their first match. Four teams took them to three sets, including Dynasty 14 Black (Heart of America) in the semi-finals (29-27, 22-25, 15-11).
“The Dynasty team … they’re very scrappy … so we had to use blocking, tool the ball a lot and use our key information that we worked on in practice on that game,” said Jenkins.
Tonight’s medalists are listed below:
14 Open
Gold: OT 14 Asics Red (FL)
Silver: Mintonette Sports (OV)
Bronze: Dynasty 14 Black (HA)
Bronze: Wave 14 Tammy (SC)
14 American
Gold: Club H 14 Kevin (SC)
Silver: Shockwave VB Academy F14 (HA)
Bronze: Nebraska Elite 14 Havoc (GP)
Bronze: CinciVB Acad 14-1 Conley (OV)
14 National
Gold: HJV 14 Eiite (LS)
Silver: KC Power 14-1 (HA)
Bronze: Tstreet 14-Shawn (SC)
Bronze: Lonestar 14 EP (NT)
14 Patriot
Gold: Elevation 14 O’Connor (OV)
Silver: SASVBC 14 Red (AH)
Bronze: Boost14 (PS)
Bronze: LAVA West 14 Adidas (SC)
14 USA
Gold: Elevation 14-1 (OV)
Silver: Six Pack 14 (IA)
Bronze: OT 14 Asics White (FL)
Bronze: Instinct 14 Leopards Wild G (NT)
Collegiate National Team:
CNT Blue defeats CNT White in second exhibition match
Azariah Stahl from Elkhart, Ind., and Purdue University has put on a show for the junior volleyball players and hometown fans at court one in the Indianapolis Convention Center, leading CNT Blue over CNT White in a second exhibition of inter-squad matches from the USAV Collegiate National Team program.
Stahl has 14 points tonight as CNT Blue won in four, 25-21, 25-20, 23-25, 25-14.
Taylor Louis was second in scoring with 13. Louis, who attends Marquette, led all scorers with 17 points in yesterday’s exhibition. Jaali Winters of Creighton tallied 12 points on attacks.
CNT Blue is now 2-0. CNT White had one player in double figures. Milana Giovanna from the University of Maryland, had 11 points. CNT White will face CNT Red tomorrow at 5p Eastern. All Collegiate National Team matches are streamed live at USAVolleyball.org.