vballrecruiter.com has been on hand for the Salt Lake City Showdown, SCVA 18s Qualifier and MEQ but it was the Red Rock Rave in Las Vegas producing the most Day 3 drama yet! We’ll have a quick rundown of the action below. Make sure to check back for our standout players list featuring top outsides, middles, right sides, setters and defenders from the Open divisions in the next couple of days. We’ll also be providing more coverage of the results and bid winners.

For now though, let’s get to the heart of it all.

In 17 Open, Coast 17-1 walked away with both its bid and the championship after beating Drive Nation 17 Red in three sets. Drive Nation was already qualified after tying for third at MEQ last weekend. Tstreet 17 Naseri – in a big surprise! – grabbed one of the other bids. Wave 17 Julianna – in an unusual way – landed the third bid.

The four-team gold bracket in 17 Open consisted of Drive Nation, Coast, Tstreet and Legacy Girls 17 Pyramid, which was another major surprise of the weekend. Legacy upset Club V to win its gold pool and make the final four. With only Drive Nation having a bid, all three bids appeared to be awarded. That meant Wave – in the sliver bracket with Club V 17 Ren Reed, ID Crush 17 Bower and AZ Rev 17 Premier – was left out without a chance of playing for a bid. However, Legacy declined its Open bid and thus Wave received the last bid. That’s because Club V, Crush and Rev were already qualified and Wave was the next in line. How unbelievable is that?

The drama was just as compelling in 16 Open, where Wave 16 Brennan earned its bid and the title by beating Mizuno Long Beach 16 Rockstar in the final. Beach already had its bid. Coast 16-1, also already qualified, was part of the drama unfolding.

Vision 16 Gold clinched second in the other gold pool and was guaranteed a bid once Beach won the second gold pool. However, while Vision knew where it stood, a couple of others didn’t in Seal Beach 16 Black and Drive Nation 16 Red. AZ Storm 16 Thunder was also in flux but controlled its own fate. Storm needed to beat Coast to create a three-way tie at 1-2 with Coast and Seal Beach. But Storm needed to win in straight sets to grab third and play Drive Nation for a bid. In that scenario, Seal Beach would’ve faced Vision in the third-place match and earned its bid. Yet, Coast prevailed in three sets. That paired Coast and Vision in the third-place match and left Seal Beach and Drive Nation playing for the last bid. Drive Nation swept to go home happy.

There was potential for a winner-take-all fifth-place showdown in 15 Open too. However, that didn’t materialize. As it went down, AZ Storm 15 Thunder picked up its second qualifier victory of the season after winning in Salt Lake. This time, Storm swept past upstart Tstreet 15 Curtis, which joined the list of surprise teams of the weekend in qualifying.

Tstreet won its pool by upsetting Drive Nation 15 Red, which already had its bid. Coast 15-1, in the same pool as Storm and TAV 15 Black, was left in limbo while things played out. TAV swept Coast to take second and make the third-place contest. That meant TAV had its bid but wasn’t sure of its opponent.

Wave 15 Scott and Club V 15 Ren Matthew were still playing the 1 v 2 match in the other gold pool with ramifications in the balance. A Club V victory would’ve placed Drive Nation in the third-place match against TAV and set up a Club V-Coast fifth-place matchup for the final bid. Wave winning meant Wave going to the third-place match and Coast nor Club V having a shot at qualifying. Wave prevailed in two sets to wrap up the final bid.