How difficult was the Winter Girls Championship as an opening qualifier back in January? The three teams which earned bids there all medal this past weekend at the USAV 18s Girls Junior National Championships in Phoenix. Sunshine 18 LA – which finished first in Chicago – went undefeated in claiming the 18 Open gold medal after defeating Madfrog 18 Green in the final. FC Elite 18 Elite and Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite – which finished second and third respectively in Chicago – tied for third and walked away with bronze medals. Here’s how their weekends played out.

SUNSHINE 18 LA (FIRST, 9-0)

Pool: d 1st Alliance 18 Gold 25-14, 25-15; d NPJ 18 Forefront 25-11, 25-11; d PVA 18 Elite 25-13, 25-20; d MN Select 18-1 25-23, 25-20; d AZ Storm 18 Thunder 25-16, 25-20
Challenge: d Rage Westside 18 25-23, 25-23
Gold: d Skyline 18 Royal 25-21, 19-25, 15-13; d FC Elite 18 Elite 25-21, 25-19; d Madfrog 18 Green 25-18, 25-21

All 10 players returned from last year’s 17 Open undefeated gold medal squad as Sunshine 18 LA – which added four new members – looked to go back-to-back in 2022. Once more, the So Cal club proved untouchable in claiming another gold medal. Sunshine powered its way to the 18 Open championship with a 9-0 mark and lost just one set along the way in Phoenix, concluding with a sweep over Madfrog 18 Green in the final.

Winners of the Girls Winter Championships in January and the SCVA 18s qualifier in March, the only match Sunshine lost all season on a national stage came against Munciana 18 Samurai in the finals of Triple Crown in February.

“We knew it would be very tough,” Sunshine coach Ali Fathali Nejad said. “We got our bid early in Chicago in January. We wanted to get better and put a lot of focus on practice. We had good focus and good concentration. We knew we had a good plan and a group of talented players.”

Sunshine – seeded No. 2 overall – rolled through its pool but showed some vulnerability in its challenge match against Rage Westside 18 Michelle. Outside Dani Thomas-Nathan became injured in that contest which forced a lineup change. Sunshine was able to narrowly escape 25-23, 25-23.

Heading into the gold bracket, Sunshine switched from its two-libero lineup and kept Megan Verbiest in that spot while moving Ellie Geoghegan to DS in hopes of solidifying the passing. Skylar Gerhardt and Ava-Marie Lange – a junior – took turns filling in for Thomas-Nathan.

With the change to the lineup, Sunshine received its biggest test of the tournament when Skyline 18 Royal pushed Sunshine to three games in the quarterfinals. Sunshine was able to take the third set 15-13.

“That was a very tough match and stressful for the families,” Nejad said. “Skyline is a big team with a lot of good players. The coaches are experienced and very smart. It was an amazing game.”

Sunshine then swept FC Elite 18 Elite in the semis. Once in the final, Sunshine played one of its cleanest matches of the tournament in beating Madfrog.

“At this level of the sport, it really matters what you have planned,” Nejad said. “Madfrog has a really good right side hitter and very fast, very smart middle blockers. We served very well against them and we wanted to keep trying to side out. We served tough and kept their passes near the 10-foot line. That gave us a good chance to block their pin hitters and defend the ball.”

Among the core lineup that was back for Sunshine was outside Elia Rubin, setter Kelly Belardi, middle blockers Lucia Scalamandre and Kennedy Hill and right side Kerry Keefe. Lange was a new addition this season, along with Gabriella Gelfound, Alex Townsend and Shannon Knight.

“It’s an amazing time for our club,” Nejad said. “Everything went very smoothly this season for us. We were ready for this championship. It’s a short season for us. It was very tough going for back-to-back championships. The girls had really good preparation and good mental preparation.”

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MADFROG 18 GREEN (SECOND, 7-3)

Pool: d Premier Nebraska 18 Gold 25-23, 25-17; d Gainesville Jrs 18/17 25-20, 29-27; l FC Elite 18 Elite 25-18, 18-25, 15-7; d Club V 18 Ren Reed 20-25, 25-19, 15-11; l Adversity 18 Adidas 25-21, 25-20
Challenge: d PVA 18 Elite 25-12, 25-22; d A5 Mizuno 18 Marc 25-23, 26-24
Gold: d Mizuno Long Beach 18 Rockstar 25-22, 17-25, 15-11; d Rockwood Thunder 18 Elite 25-22, 25-20; l Sunshine 18 LA 25-18, 25-21

Having picked up a qualifier victory and two more runner ups Madfrog 18 Green earned the No. 3 overall seed. Yet, the North Texas Region club was not performing like a high seed during pool play and barely escaped to the challenge rounds based on tiebreakers.

From there though, Madfrog found its stride and delivered a crushing blow to top-seeded A5 Mizuno 18 Marc in challenge play on its way to a runner up finish, falling to Sunshine 18 LA in the title match.

“We struggled on Day 1,” Madfrog coach Matt Sipes said. “We lacked energy and focus and we were kind of going through the motions. That being the case, the fact we made it through not playing up to our potential I actually felt confident going into the challenges.”

Sunshine defeated Madfrog in three games in the final of the SCVA 18s Qualifier in March. Madfrog played that contest without outside Maya Duckworth and right side Mia Moore. Both were back for Junior Nationals, though Moore was still playing in a limited capacity. Unfortunately for Madfrog, it wasn’t able to flip the script and cap its revenge tour that began with the challenge rounds. Still, the silver medal was the first time Madfrog as a club earned an 18 Open medal and Sipes hopes it’s a sign of what’s to come.

“We’ve been very successful,” Sipes said. “I feel we are the best club in Texas. The big kick used to be Madfrog didn’t have older teams. We put that to bed. I hope that sets the tone for the future. This group helped build that culture. This team stayed together and I hope we see that going forward.”

In hindsight, it was the victory over Club V 18 Ren Reed that allowed Madfrog to break pool. Madfrog prevailed in that one 20-25, 25-19, 15-11, with Maddie Pyles serving the first 10 points of the third set. Madfrog lost to Adversity 18 Purple next and finished in a three-way tie at 3-2 with Adversity and Gainesville Jrs 18/17. Adversity took second and Madfrog third.

The challenge rounds brought on familiar opponents, ones Madfrog wanted to extract payback against. First up was PVA 18 Elite, which defeated Madfrog at Triple Crown. Sipes said his team committed 28 unforced errors in that loss but was focused and dialed in for the rematch.

Madfrog swept to set up a showdown with A5. A5 notched a three-set victory over Madfrog in Nashville earlier this season. It was unfortunate that the contest took place in the challenge round and one would be knocked out before the quarterfinals but that was the case.

It turned out to be the match of the tournament, with Madfrog squeaking by in two close sets, 25-23, 26-24. Sipes noted some of the individual performances from that match that helped carry the team to the victory.

“Maya in that match, I can’t say enough about her,” Sipes said. “I told her for us to win she had to put everyone on her back both in her actions and in her emotions. She had 14 kills in two sets against the best blocking team in the country. Tayah Little you can see how small she is compared to their middles but she got the winning point in set one and then blocked that ball Maya got up in set two. She slowed their middles down. She got her hands on balls constantly. Avery (Calame) stepped up. She passed a 2.6 in that match and that kept us in system. Mattie Gantt was on point with her serving and was delivering the ball where she needed to. She was just amazing.”

It was an emotional victory to be sure but there was still the gold bracket waiting in the morning and anything short of a medal was going to be a disappointment. Madfrog fought off Mizuno Long Beach 18 Rockstar to clinch at least a bronze before downing Rockwood Thunderin straight sets to reach the final.

“As a team we wanted to medal at Nationals,” Sipes said. “My personal goal was to win the challenge match. This group has won so many things but they have not got through the challenge match since 13s or 14s. Once you get in the gold it’s a dice roll. It’s all about who shows up. These girls have won all these medals at qualifiers and they finally get a national medal at 18s.”

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ROCKWOOD THUNDER 18 ELITE (T-THIRD, 7-2)

Pool: d Top Select 18 Elite 25-10, 25-18; d KC Power 18-1 25-20, 25-14; l Vital 18-1 Gold 26-24, 12-25, 15-8; d Legacy 18-1 Adidas 26-24, 25-17; d SASVBC 18-1 25-23, 25-21
Challenge: d Absolute Black 18-1 25-21, 20-25, 15-11; d Coast 18-1 25-19, 25-23
Gold: d Adversity 18 Adidas 25-16, 23-25, 15-12; l Madfrog 18 Green 25-22, 25-20

Other than its loss to Vital 18-1 Gold, Rockwood Thunder had a strong run through its pool. It finished second behind Vital to reach the challenge rounds, where stronger tests awaited.

Absolute Black 18-1 was up first. It was an evenly played match on both sides, but Rockwood Thunder had just a little more at the end to pull out the three-set victory and remain alive.

Its next opponent was Coast 18-1, which was undefeated through pool play and was the No. 5 overall seed. Given the effort RT had expended in beating Absolute earlier it appeared the task of getting past Coast might be too much of an uphill fight for RT to manage. Yet, that was not the case at all. RT turned in arguably its best performance of the weekend to sweep Coast and reach the top eight to remain in the medal hunt.

“We spent a lot of time watching film,” RT coach Will Rhodes said of beating Coast. “They are pretty good all around. We were able to serve them really, really aggressively and got them out of system. That forced them to try and beat us with their outsides and out of system balls. For us fortunately, as big as we are, we are able to take away a lot of court then we worked hard in transition to get our middles involved.”

The quarterfinals brought a familiar opponent in Adversity. The Chicago area club had found success against RT in years past but was 0-2 against the St. Louis club so far in 2022. That number grew to 0-3 after RT pulled out a close three-setter to grab at least a share of the bronze medal.

“That was a tough one for us,” Rhodes said. “It’s tough to beat a team three times in a season. I was proud of the girls. They stepped up and played as a complete unit.”

Rockwood Thunder plays all 11 girls on the roster. The team runs a 6-2 with setters Anne Arand and Joelle Alexander. The team has three right sides it can turn to in Madison Scheer, Gabriella Saye and Allyson Williams. Victoria Mohesky, Ella Brinkman and Carly Glendinning are the outsides with Vanessa Polk and Madilyn Sell lining up in the middle. At libero is Madison Hoffman.

Rockwood Thunder tuned up for JN’s by playing at the JVA World Challenge at the beginning of April. There, RT came in second place playing without Polk so it was feeling confident upon its arrival in Phoenix.

“We did a good job keeping our identity,” Rhodes said. “We focused on first-ball contact and our big blockers at the net. We are a big, physical team. We have a lot of contributors. It took all 11 to get the medal.”

***

FC ELITE 18 ELITE (T-THIRD, 6-2)

Pool: d Club V 18 Ren Reed 25-15, 25-23; d Adversity 18 Adidas 25-23, 14-25, 15-12; d Madfrog 18 Green 25-18, 18-25, 15-7; l Gainesville Jrs 18/17 17-25, 25-13, 15-13; d Premier Nebraska 18 Gold 25-18, 25-20
Challenge: d Circle City 18 Purple 26-24, 25-19
Gold: d Vital 18-1 Gold 25-20, 25-17; l Sunshine 18 LA 25-21, 25-19

The opening day proved to be key for FC Elite 18 Elite. It pulled out a pair of three-set victories over Adversity and Madfrog to finish Day 1 at 3-0. Both Madfrog and Adversity were seeded ahead of them in the pool and with those matches out of the way FC Elite paved its own way to winning the pool. FC Elite clinched first in the pool the next day by beating Premier Nebraska 18 Gold in straight sets and that gave FC Elite a bye in the first round of challenge matches.

Later Saturday evening, FC Elite held back Circle City 18 Purple in two to advance to the top eight and pull within a victory of medaling. Waiting in the quarters was Vital, an at-large recipient that was the surprise of the tournament. Seeded No. 37 to start with, Vital not only won its pool but worked its way into the quarters and like FC Elite was only a victory away from a medal. FC Elite ended the Cinderella story however, sweeping Vital and keeping its own run going.

Up next was Sunshine in the semis. It was a rematch of the Girls Winter Championships qualifier final back in January. Sunshine swept a close one then. FC Elite carried confidence into the match from that one but was unable to extract payback and return the favor. FC Elite’s only other loss in Phoenix came to Gainesville Jrs 18/17 in its fourth pool match.

“Eighteen Open is so deep,” FC Elite coach Brett Damrow said. “There is so much parity. There are a lot of great athletes and coaches. It’s about who is gelling at the right moment and also about the matchups. It was exciting. It was a great opportunity for these athletes.”

Impressively, FC Elite accomplished what it did with the youngest roster in the division. There are only five seniors on the roster in setter Emma Baierl, outside Brianna Cantrell, L/DS Karissa Kaminski, right side Isabella Van Lannen and middle blocker Berkley Mischler. The rest are underclassmen, including standout juniors in libero Saige Damrow and right side Kennedy Martin. The team’s other setter is sophomore in Bryn Janke, as is outside Ella Demetrician. Middle Autumn Flynn is a junior.

“It’s pretty neat,” Damrow said. “Our thought is we try to push our athletes to the highest level they can compete at and if they can handle the mental side they can handle the physical side. We might have some kids leaving early (next year) and not playing 18s but we would be fully loaded if we could keep them together.”