The wait? Worth it!

It might have taken three days to get to the point where we were at Wednesday but the final day of competition in 15 Open at the AAU Girls Junior National Championships in Orlando is what dreams are made of! And I’m not even talking about this year’s national champion in Mintonette Sports m.51, which fended off the No. 1 team in the country in Skyline 15 Royal in three sets, 22-25, 25-23, 15-9, in the gold-medal match to end the tournament a perfect 11-0.

There isn’t anyone who could have written a more entertaining, a more exciting script than the one that played out on Day 4 at the State Farm building on the campus on ESPN Wide World of Sports. Except for the fans of the 11 other competitors which did not get the golden ending produced by Mintonette, which is ranked No. 2 behind Skyline in our Top 50 National Rankings.

That’s right. The championship match was a heavyweight bout between the top-two ranked teams in the country. And that wasn’t all!

When the 15 Open division opened played four days ago, there were 15 teams from our Top 50 in contention. As for Wednesday’s 12-team gold bracket, 11 were from our Top 50 with Rev 15-1 Fuego the only unranked team of the bunch. There was that, and also the fact that of the 11 ranked teams, they were among the 13 highest-ranked teams in the field to start with. The two to miss out were No. 11 AP 15 Adidas and No. 30 Jupiter Elite 15E.

The rest of the top teams were all on hand to begin the last day of play, which included previously-mentioned Skyline, Mintonette, No. 3 Boiler Jrs 15 Gold, No. 8 Legacy 15-1 Adidas, No. 19 Tribe 15 Elite Cardinal, No. 21 GP 15 Rox, No. 25 Tri-State Elite 15 Blue, No. 26 Far Out 15 Black, No. 28 WPVC 15 Armour Black, No. 33 Top Select 15 Elite and No. 36 A5 15 Bob.

It took until the quarterfinals to finally see two of those squads lined up on different sides of the net from one another, as the lack of upsets kept most of the ranked teams apart the first three days. Mintonette did advance to the gold bracket in part by beating No. 11 AP on Day 3, but that was about it.

The mega quarterfinal match Wednesday featured Boiler Jrs taking on Tribe. Boiler was pushed early on the round before by Tri-State Elite, which made Boiler work extra time before winning in three, 23-25, 25-13, 15-3. It was really at this point a trend developed, as Boiler-Tribe was the last of the quarterfinals to wrap up and produced another three-setter, the same as both semis and the final in what was a fairytale ending from a fan’s perspective.

Boiler Jrs and Tribe was that match where you didn’t know what was going to happen, with the way each side could go on mini-spurts to change the momentum and score. Tribe led 21-15, 23-19 and 24-22 in the opening set but that didn’t prevent Boiler from tying it at 24 all before Tribe hung on. The second set was the reverse, with Boiler going ahead 24-20 before Tribe reeled off four straight points and was positioned for a sweep. But Tribe was called out of rotation on set point and a it was on to a third set, with Boiler closing it out, 24-26, 26-24, 15-9.

The semifinal clashes both had their background stories.

For Mintonette and Legacy, it was a trilogy meeting with both teams winning and losing once against each other so far this season. Mintonette took it to Legacy at Windy City only for Legacy to get revenge earlier this month at the JVA Summerfest.

The third meeting delivered the set of the tournament! And it was the only reason Mintonette even was still around, having held off two match points in an epic overscore before eventually prevailing, 16-25, 36-34, 15-12. Mintonette had eight – yes eight! – chances to put Legacy down in set two before Legacy had its first look at victory leading 32-31. Legacy earned one more opportunity to put itself in the final and a chance to win 15 Open for the second consecutive season here in Orlando. However, Mintonette went back in front 34-33 before winning on a Legacy hitting error three points later. You know what they say, if at first your don’t succeed, try 10 more times. It worked for Mintonette in Game 2.

The other semifinal was about payback. Back in February when Skyline captured the 15s championship at the Triple Crown NIT there was one team it lost to. Can you guess who that might have been? You got it! Boiler Jrs! Don’t’ think for a second that either side had forgotten what took place five months ago. We certainly didn’t.

When Boiler let a lead slip away in Game 1 it looked like perhaps they were gassed from their victory over Tribe, but that was not it. Boiler Jrs settled down and played a strong second set, forcing a third and putting themselves that much closer to defending their 14 Open gold medal they took home a year ago here. Yet, Skyline was not having any of it in the final set, building an early lead and maintaining before ending it, 25-22, 19-25, 15-7.

That brings us to the showdown between the top two teams in the country. It wasn’t a tricky match to figure out from an Xs and Os standpoint. If Mintonette didn’t serve tough and keep Skyline off the net it was going to be a short outing. With Mintonette struggling with its own ball control, it was not a close opening set. But as Mintonette settled and the passing picked up, so did its chances at winning the match. Skyline played behind for much of Game 2 but couldn’t quite catch Mintonette at the end and it was yet another third set, this one for all the marbles.

Skyline’s passing broke down in the third set and that allowed Mintonette to seize control before winning, 16-25, 25-23, 15-9.

The same division – 15 Open – begins next Wednesday in Chicago, where Skyline is once again likely to receive the top seed. Mintonette, Boiler Jrs, Legacy, Tribe, GP, WPVC and Top Select will all be there as well. But one thing is for sure about competition in the Windy City. We won’t have to wait four days to see the top teams finally get together. That’ll happen on Day 1 and we can hardly wait.

Congrats to Mintonette on a great run in Orlando, as well to Skyline for silver and Legacy and Boiler Jrs for bronzes.