It’s confession time. Being a media site which is supposed to remain unbiased, neutral and fair at vballrecruiter.com, we were secretly rooting for any team other than Munciana 18 Samurai to bring home the 18 Open gold medal at AAUs in Orlando.

It’s nothing personal. It’s just that the newly-crowned 18 Open gold medalist – a title Muncie earned after sweeping rival Sports Performance 18 Elite in the championship match Saturday at the ESPN Zone – made life very difficult on us.

Why?

In winning the national championship, Munciana opened up a debate and we are the ones who must settle it. See, way back in February Muncie won this tournament. You might have heard of it. It’s called Triple Crown and most all the top teams in the country were there. Muncie won the 18s championship, defeating Sunshine 18 LA in the final. It was Sunshine, of course, which took home the USAV 18s GJNC gold medal in April.

When we released our 18s National Rankings in May it was Sunshine taking the No. 1 spot. But we did leave the door open for Muncie to reclaim it should Muncie take home gold here in Orlando. Now that that has happened, let the debate begin!

There’s no arguing which of the two clubs played the harder schedule. Sunshine not only took home gold in Phoenix, it won national qualifiers in Chicago and So Cal. The only other team outside of Muncie to defeat Sunshine on a national stage was A5 Mizuno 18 Marc, also at Triple Crown.

As for Muncie, it played a very limited schedule. The Indiana club hit up Triple Crown, Bluegrass in Louisville and AAUs. Muncie lost at Bluegrass to SPVB. Muncie also lost to Hou Skyline 18 Royal at Triple Crown. The biggest argument for Muncie is of course owning the head-to-head victory over Sunshine. You have two national championships, two winners, with one winner having beaten the other winner.

That’s how the two stack up. We aren’t ready to make any proclamations yet. You’ll have to wait until July when we release our final national rankings. We’ll definitely be weighing both sides of the argument until then.

As for the final day of the season for Muncie, it played out exactly like what we have become accustomed to seeing with the 18s from this club. Muncie rarely is going to beat itself. To get over on Muncie, opponents need to bring it and simply outplay Muncie because they won’t be handed anything.

No team we saw in the 18s this season plays with as much fire and heart as Muncie does. That’s not necessarily to say Muncie is the best team, simply it’s refreshing to see the pure joy and excitement this group exudes on the court.

In defeating SPVB in yesterday’s challenge match for seedings, Muncie took over the top spot and eventually met up with Coast 17-1 again in the semis. Muncie downed Kokoro 18-1 in straight sets in the quarters, while Coast held off Kairos 18 Adidas, 19-25, 25-13, 18-16, in its quarterfinal.

Coast snuck past Muncie on Day 2, taking Game 3 in strong fashion, 15-9. No doubt that didn’t sit well with Muncie. After all, this is an 18 Open national championship and losing to a 17s team is going to sting. Coast came out hot in the rematch, taking the first set 25-16 before Muncie fought back and won the next two, 25-21, 15-13, to reach the final.

The rematch with SPVB was not on the level of Friday’s contest, which Muncie won, 25-21, 28-30, 15-13. Saturday’s final was a more one-sided affair with Muncie prevailing, 25-23, 25-19.

Muncie’s style is on its own level. The team trains and focuses on fast transition from offense to defense. That means playing great defense first, because without a dig there is no offense to transition to.

It’s that speed and quickness from defense to offense that opponents have a hard time keeping up with and reacting to. At times, teams think they have a kill only to see the ball picked up and before opponents know it it’s coming right back at them.

This is not a big team. Outside Eva Hudson is one of the two tallest players, along with middle Lovie Wallace. Along with Avery Ross, the outsides keep coming at opponents with aggression and putting lots of pressure on defenses. Setter Ella Bostic does well mixing in her middles with Wallace and Breanna Gross to keep teams honest. Then there is libero Ramsey Gary, who is one of the best in the Class of 2023 and a stalwart defensively.

In an ideal world, we would get the rematch we all want to see between Sunshine and Munciana instead of having to decide which team deserves our final No. 1 ranking the most.