2011 Season  News

SENIOR SIGNINGS:

• June 2011: Fifth and final Senior Signs: Tiva Akau, the last remaining unsigned senior from the 18 Elite Black team has accepted and offer to play at Bellevue College.  She will join Marysville-Pilchuck teammate Sam Minnig on NW Juniors Assistant Director - Kim Culliton's squad.  Akau is the fifth and final member to sign of the group of five players that have been together four seasons under the guidance of club Director Tony Miranda. She joins a solid Bellevue team that will compete in the North Division of the NWAACC.  "I'm extremely proud of my five seniors, and happy we were able to find good fit for Tiva," says Miranda "I look forward to seeing these players play the next few years.  I have become close with these players and their families, and it makes me happy that they will be playing college volleyball in the Northwest where I can watch them play."     

• May, 2011: Fourth Senior Signs: Despite an early season injury and ACL reconstructive surgery, Samantha Minnig has earned a volleyball scholarship and becomes the fourth member of the 18 Elite Black team to secure their future on the court.  Minnig has signed to play at Bellevue College, for assistant club director Kim Culliton.  No doubt Culliton's familiarity with the potential that the 6' 2" Minnig brings contributed to her belief that the Marysville-Pilchuck middle would be a good addition to the Bellevue college team.  Minnig has been hard at work re-habbing her knee and is on track to contribute to the Bulldogs in the fall.  Congratulations Sam.

• April, 2011: Third Senior Signs: A third 18 Elite Black team member, Haley Bedell has accepted an offer to attend and play volleyball in college.  She accepted an offer from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.  Bedell joins Taylor Brooks and Olivia VanDlac as seniors that have played for club director Tony Miranda for four seasons and have now earned a college playing opportunity.  All three have been teammates on the 15 Heat, 16 Eclipse, 17 Elite and 18 Elite teams -- all coached by Miranda.  The club is proud of our seniors and wishes them all the best of luck as they move on to play at the next level.

• February, 2011: Seniors Sign Letters of Intent: So far two members of the 18 Elite Black team (Taylor Brooks & Olivia VanDlac) have secured their college destinations for the 2012 season.  Both have played together as members of NW Juniors VBC since they played for the 14 Cyclone team 5 seasons ago).  Setter, Taylor Brooks was the first to sign -- having accepted an offer from Tacoma Community College, one of the top programs in the NWAACC.  Outside Hitter, Olivia VanDlac signed with Northwest University of Kirkland -- a great NAIA program that competes in the Cascade Conference.  We are proud of both of them and are happy that their hard work has paid off in the form of college scholarships.  Since both are local, we look forward to watching them play for the next few years.  Congratulations to both seniors!

TOURNAMENT & SEASON NEWS

• Emerald City Classic: Four of our Five NW Juniors Elite Teams were accepted into the Emerald City Classic Tournament on Memorial Day Weekend at the UW.  The team with the best success within their division was the 16 Elite Black team, which lost in the Final of the 16 Club Gold Division, and placed MB Courtney Smith onto the All-tournament team.  The 16 Elite Gold team was also in the 16 Club and finished 33rd overall.  The 18 Elite Black team competed in the 18 Open Division and lost in the Bronze Division final to KJ 18's -- finishing 18th overall; the 14 Elite Gold team had a solid showing, playing their way into the 14 Club's Silver Division, and finishing 11th overall.

• NW Juniors Memorial Weekend Tournament: Our 11 remaining teams participated in the club-hosted Memorial Weekend Tournament held in various sites on the Eastside and North end. Notable finishes include 15 Elite Gold, champions of the U15D2 Gold Division; 13 Thunder, Champions of the U13 Silver Division; and 13 Heat third place in the 13 Gold Division.

• Willamette Classic: Our Five NW Juniors Elite Teams travelled to Corvallis, Or for the weekend to play in their last travel tournament of the season.  Each team met with varied success as they navigated through the quirky format of the Classic held over Mother's Day Weekend.  Results from the entire tournament are posted here. 

• NW Juniors 18 Elite Black named April Team of the Month: With top finishes in all three tournaments they played in April, the 18 Elite team has earned team of the month honors.  A month that started with a 5th place in Flight 2 of the U18 Power League and continued with a top finish at the Reno Qualifier was capped by a 5th place finish in the 18 Regional championship tournament.  Congratulations 18 Elite.

• All 17 teams in the club competed in the Puget Sound Region Championship Tournament:  The weekend was filled with competition throughout the region as every NW Juniors team played in the regional championships.  Many teams continued their steady climbs up the rankings and several teams had breakout weekends.  As we receive notes from the coaches on their results we will post them.   FINAL RESULTS

  • 18 Elite Black continued their late season run competing with the best teams in the Northwest with a 5th place finish in the U18 Bid tournament.  After great improvement in Spokane, and a run at the Gold in Reno, they followed it up with some great play at Regionals.  With narrow losses to Lake Tapps and KJ 18's they were within an eyelash of earning a bid to the National Championships in Atlanta.  Their best match came Sunday morning against KJ 18 Baden, narrowly losing 18-20 in set 3.  KJ would go on and play Lake Tapps for an American Bid.  18 Elite defeated Puget Sound 18 National 2-0 to earn 5th Place. Top Five finishers: 1) WVBA, 2) ITVC,  3) Lake Tapps, 4) KJ, 5) NW Juniors 18 Elite

  • 12 Eclipse established itself as a top 12's team in the Northwest.  After a championship in Yakima and a great 2nd place finish at the last Power League tournament, 12 Eclipse entered Regionals as the #4 overall seed.  They narrowly missed a chance to play Puget Sound in the Gold Final, and instead finished 3rd overall after an easy victory over Synergy 12's in the 3/4 match.  They complete their season as the #3 team in the Puget Sound region.  Nice job by the 12's as we look forward to a continued run at the top of the region for this group of young ladies.  Top Five: 1) PSVBA 12 National, 2) Capital Ice; 3) NW Juniors 12 Eclipse, 4) Synergy Purple , 5) SIVBC 12 Monsoon.

  • 14 Storm Won the 14 D3 Bronze Division

• Elite teams travel to qualifiers with varied success: Three teams traveled to Reno and one to Anaheim for National Qualifiers with a chance to qualify for nationals and seeking inter-regional competition. 

  • The 18 Elite Black team, in Reno for the Far Westerns Qualifier, stayed in the hunt for a bid all the way until the morning of the last day. Seeded a very low 82 out of 96 teams going into the tournament, they went into Friday afternoon's first day of competition with a chip on their shoulders defeating the #9 seed Sport City and #63 Sequoia Crush, but losing to #34 Utah Jrs and finishing second in pool -- moving up to seed #34 in the process.  Day two found them opening up against a very solid San Gabriel RoShamBo team and losing to the team that would eventually finish 3rd overall; they bounced back nicely by defeating #16 San Francisco 18 RoShamBo in a three-set thriller and #39 Club Wahine of Seattle fairly easily -- their 2-1 record earned them a chance at the Gold Pools bright and early Sunday morning.  Sunday brought great play, but different results as they struggled with the early morning match against City Beach, eventually losing 25-27, 22-25.  With that loss their chances for a bid disappeared and they did not play well their last two matches Sunday.  A great weekend earned them a 21st place finish in the 18 Club division and they were the highest finishing Puget Sound Region team in the field. Great  and consistent performances were turned in by Kiah Jones and Taylor Brooks; and Danielle Lieder was named tournament MVP.

  • The 16 Elite Black team also traveled to Reno and finished the weekend with a 7-3 record.  The had a tough first day, losing a couple close matches and finishing 1-2 in pool and in third place.  This unfortunately meant that they would be out of the hunt for a bid and in the bottom half of the field and destined to finish no higher than 89th (out of 177 teams).  They then went on a 6-match winning streak -- going 4-0 on Saturday in pool play, winning their 5-team pool, and going 2-0 in bracket play Sunday before losing in the Flight 3A final.  Their great weekend netted them 90th place in the 16 Club. 

  • The 16 Elite Gold (Reno) and 15 Elite Gold (Anaheim) teams, though in different cities had similarly disappointing weekends.  The 16 Elite Gold Team finished in 171st while the 15 Elite Gold team finished 108th.  Both teams had a difficult time the first two days of the tournament but finished strong in the last day.  16 Elite played extremely well, but just missed out on winning some close matches -- going 1-2 on Friday, and 0-3 Saturday (losing all three matches in 3 sets); then going 2-0 on Sunday before having to forfeit the final in order to make their flight.  15 Elite Gold also went 1-2 the first day followed by a rough 0-3 second day, and a 2-1 third day after a loss in the final of their bracket.  No worries missing their plane Sunday as they stayed an extra day for a day of team fun at Disneyland & California Adventure!

• 3/13/11: 10 Northwest Juniors teams travelled to the Team Yakima Jamboree and had varying amounts of success.  We would like to highlight their successes here.  All final results are posted to the tournament website.  Unfortunately, most of our teams were handcuffed by a very unusual format that did not allow them to advance into the top divisions of the tournament. Regardless of how many matches they won, some of our teams could not finish very high. Despite these restrictions, many of our teams had very successful weekends.  At the end of the first day, as coaches reported in most of our teams finished first of second in their pools.  Great weekend teams.  Highlights:

  • The 12 Eclipse team (pictured at right with their prizes) WON the U12 tournament.  They entered as the #4 seed and went undefeated all weekend.  Their playoff adventure was highlighted by back-to-back 3rd set victories over Cowlitz Black (#1 seed) and the host team Team Yakima Gold (#2 seed) in the final.

  • 12 Storm team also had a great tournament on the court.  They won their first round pool in Division 2 and were placed into the Division 1 tournament for the remainder.  They did not win in Division 1 but reports are that they played phenomenally.

  • 15 Heat did not lose a match until the playoff round on Sunday afternoon.  They lost in the semi-finals.

  • 13 Heat had a great weekend losing in the finals of their division.

  • 18 Elite Black played in the Power Division and took second place in their first round of pool -- and moved up to Division 1.  After a tough second round of pool -- they finished 3rd -- they ended up losing in the first round of playoffs and finished tied for 5th place overall on the U18's Division (out of 24 teams).

  • 15 Tornado and 15 Thunder had some great successes and earned some great victories.  Both teams have struggled this season, but their Yakima weekend brought victories and smiles to the coaches and the players.

  • 14 Cyclone and the 13 Thunder & 13 Tornado teams all played well.

• 13 Heat poses for their picture with their prizes after winning the January 30th Sports For Youth U13's Tournament at Highline Community College. 

• 1/18/11: 18 Elite Gold a finalist in the MLK Tournament.  Our 18 Elite team had a good weekend, losing in the final to the Seaside Surf team of Canada.  They played some very good volleyball over the weekend, but were not able to overcome the taller Canadian team in the second time they played.  They finished the weekend 6-3 overall with two of their losses coming to the eventual champion.  In other weekend news, the 16 Elite Black team made it onto the Gold Division of the MLK tournament and finished tied for 3rd overall, 14 Elite Gold won the Bronze Division over a spunky 13 Heat team; and the 12 Eclipse team won the Silver Bracket at the UPVBC U12's Tournament.

• 1/10/11: After the first round of Power League, our Elite teams competed well and met with varied success.  Our 18 Elite team was the highest finisher of all of our elite teams, finishing in 9th place overall in the U18 division.  Our 16 Elite Black team played themselves into Flight 4 and finished 26th overall, while our 16 Elite Gold team finished 40th overall (out of 96 total teams).  Our 15 Elite Gold team had the biggest jump of all the teams, starting as the #67 overall seed and finishing a respectable 51st; of the 42 U15 teams in the field, they are the 17th overall.  The 14 Elite Gold team finished in the top half of the bracket, in Flight 4 as the 31st overall seed (out of 69).

• January 8 & 9 is Power League Weekend with 9 of our teams competing in the region's seeding tournament.  Teams are competing throughout the region in a one-day multi-match format that guarantees a long day of play.  Results of the first installment of Power League will determine which division the teams will play in on the weekend of January 22-23. All Power League results and event information is managed by the region.

Northwest Juniors Volleyball Club: 15821 NE 8th St., Suite W-200 / Bellevue, WA 98008