National Treasure

The girls volleyball competitive club season ended with multiple national championship events in 2015-2016.

At the USA Volleyball Junior Nationals from June 28-July 3, as many as four Northern California teams returned after Top-5 efforts. The Five Starz 15-1 Black squad (pictured below) out of Davis returned with the runner-up trophy from the 15 American Division. Five Starz 15-1 Black went 8-3 during their time in Indianapolis. They won their quarterfinal and semifinal matches in straight sets before falling 25-11, 25-20 to Revolution 15-1 National of Woodlands, Texas. That Revolution team went 11-0 and won 22 of its 24 sets.

Other clubs to shine in Indianapolis included Red Rock 14-1 (Redwood City), SF JRs. RoShamBo 14-1 (San Francisco), Encore Navy 16-1 (Redwood City) and Mountain View Volleyball Club (MVVC) 18 Red. Red Rock went 7-2 on the weekend to grab a tie for fifth place in the 14 National Division. SJ JRs 14-1 grabbed a fifth-place finish in the 14 USA Division. Encore tied for a third-place finish in the 16 USA Divsion, and MVVC 18 Red went a blistering 8-1 en route to a fifth-place finish. MVVC was bounced from bracket play 25-21, 21-25, 15-12 by eventual runner-up Rockwood Thunder 18-Navy (St. Louis).

The Diablo Valley Volleyball Club 18-1 Black “” which SportStars featured in its Digital Weekly as part of a Junior Nationals preview “” wound up placing tied for 21st in the 18 American Division. DVVC went 4-5 during the weekend.

While many clubs were preparing to go to Indianapolis, Xceleration VB Club’s 18-Blue (Pleasant Hill) was already competing at a national event. The Xceleration team coached by Andy Schroeder and led by the Liberty-Brentwood duo of outside hitter Taylor Dixon and setter Kaitlynn Zdroik, were competing at the AAU National Championships in Orlando. The team “” which also featured Monte Vista-Danville standout Ava Patterson, Head-Royce-Oakland’s Natasha Skov and St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda standout Emma Doud “” finished 19th overall.

Xceleration began the tournament 6-2, but narrowly missed winning the crossover match that would’ve propelled the team into the championship bracket. The team was defeated by Northern Lights (Minnesota) in a three-set thriller. Northern Lights took the decisive set 15-12.

Dixon is headed to CSU San Marcos on scholarship; Zdroik chose San Jose State; Patterson will attend Bryant and Doud is set to go to Loyola Marymount.
“” SportStars Staff