The 17- and 14-under teams of the Santa Barbara Spikers Volleyball Club earned open division spots for the Junior Olympics National Championships in Minneapolis in July.
The 16-under finished ninth at the Junior National Qualifier and the club will apply for an at large Open Bid. The 18s finished 32nd and will go into the Club Division.
The Junior National Qualifier is the strongest competition during the Fall Season with teams from all over USA, Mexico and Puerto Rico participating. It was held in Anaheim.
14-under team, coached by Miles Evans and Justin Hertlein: The SB Spikers swept both OCVC 14-1 and Laguna Beach 14, advancing to the Gold Bracket and lost the final match to 949-14 Black in three games to finish in 9th place in the competition out of 44 teams.
Team Players: Andrew Fay, Kip Lawrence, Barron Mainz, Hayden Millington, Connor Everman, Mark Raphael, Morgan Pierce, Piper Davis, Joe Terre, Cole Wenal, Harrison Schell, Noah Pfeiffer and Jake Pighetti
16-under team, coached by Shane Cervantes and Ric Cervantes: The team played aggressive volleyball and finished ninth place out of 60 Teams.
“We finished one match short to earn our open bid for Junior Olympics, but our chances are good to get an at-large bid and go to JO’s in the Open Division on July,” said Shane Cervantes. The 16s defeated Main Beach Laguna 16-1 2-0 and then Renegades 16-Black by 2-1. The lost the final match to 949-16 Black by 2-0.
Team Players: Logan Carmody, Quinlan Dougherty, Joe Rafferty, Duffy Kerwin-McElroy, Hart Pithcher, Channing Peak, Brendan Fay, Kristian Squires, Carl Mendoza, Chandler Swift, Matt Wagonhurst and Tristan Fauntleroy
17-under team, coached by Ben Koski and Eric Vincent: The team had a real tough road to the Gold Bracket, playing some tough matches and surviving them all. The 17s finished ninth out of 48 teams and earned the open bid for Junior Olympics.
“We had to adjust our line up the last day of the competition and the it worked out well. Ryan Worley stepped up setting for the team and Gavin Trudeau as an outside hitter,” Koski said. “Ryan did run the best offense we could have asked for and made a difference not only for us, but to the opponents that were caught by surprise. Everyone played a big role.
The 17s defeated Balboa Bay 17-White 2-1, and swept Clovis 17-Black and Manhattan Beach Surf 17s.
Team players: Ryan Worley, Gavin Trudeau, Robbie Gallivan, Vince Velasco, Nick Clark, Gabriel Burdick, Kyle Estabrooks, Holden Ploch, Sam Cohen and Casey Slaught.
18-under team, coached by Armen Zakarian and Andy McGuire: The 18s finished 32nd place out of 66 teams.
“We fought as hard as we could and had some tough losses by two points in very important matches,” Zakarian said. “I was happy to see the players giving 100% every time. Despite not finishing as high as we would have liked to, the players improvement over the Fall Season was gratifying to see.”
The 18s won their last three matches by 2-0, against HLVBC 18 Black and SCVC 18 Blue and by 2-1 over The HBC 18-Black Bear.
Team players: Sam Duval, Carson Pierce, Robert Connolly, Johnny Brand, Mark Outwater, Zach Ying, Jacob Badish, Alex Biedul, Josh Avery, Keilan Meertens and Jaiden Pina.
