The USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from June 26-July 5. In order to play at this prestigious tournament in one of the four main divisions, a club team must win their…
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The USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from June 26-July 5. In order to play at this prestigious tournament in one of the four main divisions, a club team must win their bid by placing at a USAV national qualifier.
184 teams have earned their right to represent their club and compete to be one of the best teams in the nation in four different 16’s divisions. The state of Texas was heavily represented in the 16’s American Division with 12 teams making the trip to Nevada out of the 64 teams in the tournament.
Absolute Volleyball Academy 16 Adidas
The team led by head coach Haley Jacob (who used to play for AVA during her club career) has had a fantastic season as they were able to Qualify for Junior Nationals in the American Division. During the regular season they had 28 wins and only 13 losses against some stellar competition. They won were able to play extremely well and finish in the top five at Lone Star Regionals to earn their bid to Nationals. I was super excited to cover them at nationals since I spent one season coaching for Katy and Jerry many moons ago when I took one of their 15s teams to Nationals in Reno. The program will always hold a special place in my heart as they have two of the most caring directors I have ever known.
Day one and two consists of pool play. There are six pools of eight teams that are seeded by USA Volleyball. Many factors go into the seeding such as win/loss record versus the rest of the teams in the field. AVA 16 Adidas came in to the tournament ranked as the 17thbest team in the 16 American Division. They went undefeated in matches during the first pool of the tournament that is played over the first two days. The only tough match that they truly had was the first match of the tourney against North Pacific Juniors 16 National from the Columbia Empire Region in which AVA won (25-23, 25-22). The other four teams in the pool were no match for AVA 16 Adidas as they won each match in straight sets the rest of the way in decisive fashion. By winning first place in their opening pool they took over the number one seed in the tournament from here on out.
Day three at Nationals in the American Division goes into a small challenge bracket to determine which bracket for the final day of copetition. These teams now have to prove themselves by getting first place in this bracket to still have a shot at the title. 16 Adidas earned a bye in the first round due to being the first overall seed. They faced Five:1 16 Black and had no trouble with them as they won easily with scores of (25-16, 25-15).
Up next for AVA was the Day four Gold bracket. AVA ran into a strong Michio Chicago 16 National in the first round. Both teams battled back and forth in the first set with AVA pulling out the close win 25-23. The Chicago team didn’t have much more in the tank for the second set as AVA rolled in the set 25-16 to win the match and move on to the Semis.
The Semi-Finals against the fourth ranked Surfside 16 MB Legends from Southern Cali was a very tough matchup. AVA came up just a little short in both sets as they lost (20-25, 20-25). This gave them the third place overall finish at USA Nationals in the American Division. We are proud of them to bring back some hardware back to Htown!
Devyn Lewis Devyn Lewis 6'1" | MB Manvel | 2023 State TX and Ana Garza Ana Garza 5'11" | OH Alvin | 2023 State TX were both named to the 16 American All-Tournament team due to their awesome blocking and attacking throughout the entire four days of play. They are special players and we are super excited to have them in our State Rankings.
16 American – All Tournament Team
Devyn Lewis Devyn Lewis 6'1" | MB Manvel | 2023 State TX [2023] 6-2 Middle (HS: Manvel/Club: Absolute Volleyball Academy/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Devyn is currently the 28thranked overall prospect and the 7thbest middle in the 2023 class according to the Prep Dig State Rankings list. We have written a few articles on her this year and here is a little from them, “Miss Lewis is a very talented Rising Sophom*ore who is out of the southeast side of Houston. She plays for a wonderful program in AVA. Devyn has an uncanny ability to hit a monstrous cut back shot toward the setter in zone 1. This young lady has a cannon and if there is a split in the block she will unleash it on her opponents. Setters are in trouble if she hits that cut back shot. It is extremely lethal. I love her transition footwork on the court. She is under the tutelage of former University of Texas great Katy Garza who always teaches such great middle footwork. Miss Lewis will no doubt keep getting better and will be on many college programs’ radars soon. She will help lead her high school program Manvel as a youngster this coming season. We were very impressed with Devyn during her sophom*ore season at Manvel as she was able to help her varsity squad to a 20-6 overall record and also a 14-2 district record.In her first stint on varsity she was able to be a monster in the stat book tallying 183 kills on a beautiful .330 hitting percentage. She added 60 blocks and 30 aces. It is safe to say that she will be a huge part of their dominance in their district this coming season. We will be watching her AVA 16 Adidas team as they battle for supremacy in Vegas at USA Junior Nationals. Stay tune for more info on Miss Lewis.” She played extremely well all tournament long and patrolled the net to help her team to a 3rdplace overall finish at Nationals. She played so well that she was named to the All-Tournament team for the 16 American division. This is a huge honor and just goes to show you how dominant she truly is in the position.We are excited to cover her during her upcoming junior season at Manvel. Please congratulate her on her achievement.
Ana Garza Ana Garza 5'11" | OH Alvin | 2023 State TX [2023] 6-0 Middle/Outside (HS: Alvin/Club: Absolute Volleyball Academy/Verbal: Uncommitted)
Ana is currently ranked as the 88thbest overall prospect in the 2023 class according to our Prep Dig State Rankings. In our previous article we said the following, “She stars for a very talented AVA program on the outskirts of the southeast side of the Houston area. AVA is a very talented program who routinely pumps out high level talent to colleges across the country. Ana is one of their stud 15’s players on a roster littered with talent. Miss Garza has exceptional power in her swing. She drives her legs hard into the ground, which is a staple of the Katy Garza, club director of AVA, training in the middle.This allows Ana to be on time for such a quick tempo set from her teammates. It is a very difficult thing to teach a young player. Ana is blessed to be able to buy into the speed of approach at such a young age. It will only help her as she continues to grow into the position as the years go by.She was a big reason why her Alvin HS squad went 18-9 overall and 9-5 in district. Her sophom*ore season saw major improvements in every category. Overall in two years she has had 240 kills, a .281 hitting percentage, 119 blocks and 18 aces. After watching her grow into the middle position against varsity competition, it is my firm belief that this young lady can easily move up the rankings over the next few years. She has a super high motor and her frame is built for high-level volleyball. She will absolutely be a force to be reckoned with in any position she plays as she is able to hit on the pins and also has great ball control in serve receive and defense. This young lady is one to keep an eye on as a college prospect. Stay tuned to see what she does with her awesome AVA club program.” She was extremely explosive during the course of the tournament at Nationals and was picked for the 16 American All-Tournament team. The sky is the limit for this young phenom. We will be looking to move her up in the rankings as soon as we update them soon. Pleas congratulate her on her awesome achievement.
Stay tuned for more articles on your favorite teams and athletes. If you have anyone you think we should watch out for, please shoot me an email with some info on them at nov8vb@yahoo.com. Also don’t forget to help these kids get more exposure by sharing our stories with your friends. Help us help them by simply retweeting on Twitter or sharing on Facebook. Thanks for following Texas Family!
