SEATTLE, WA - Apr. 25, 2007
So far WVBA has qualified four of its seven teams to compete at the Junior Olympic National Championship in Minneapolis in early July. We are sending all seven teams to Reno this weekend for one last try to get more bids or to improve existing ones already earned.

WVBA Mizuno 18
Mizuno 18 has not yet qualified for JOs and is in the #2 position for a reallocation bid. They will likely need to win a bid in Reno to earn a shot at going to Minneapolis for JOs. Mizuno 18 will be playing in the 18 Open Division and there are 3 bids available. They will need to finish in the top 5 to be eligible for one of these bids and hope that two of the other four teams have already qualified in 18 Open at another qualifier. There are 31 teams in the 18 Open Division.

WVBA Mizuno 18-Red
Mizuno 18-Red has not yet qualified for JOs. They are playing in the Club Division in Reno and they will need to finish 1st or 2nd overall to earn a bid. There are 86 teams in the 18 Club Division.

WVBA Mizuno 17
Mizuno 17 won the Puget Sound Region's Club National Division bid to JOs by winning the prime time qualifier on April 7th. They will be playing in the open division and they will need to finish in the top five to be eligible for one of the three bids offered. There are 24 teams in the 17 Open Division.

WVBA Mizuno 16
Mizuno 16 earned a Club National bid through the trickle down process by finishing 2nd in the prime time qualifier on April 7th. When KJ earned an open bid in Southern California last weekend, Mizuno 16 was awarded the local Club National bid from Prime Time. They will be looking to improve their bid to an Open Division bid in Reno this weekend. They will need to be in the top 5 and hope that two of the other four teams already have Open Division bids from another qualifier. At least 6 of the 34 teams in the 16 Open field in Reno have already qualified at other open qualifiers.

WVBA Mizuno 15
Mizuno 15 was informed yesterday that they were being awarded a Club American Division bid through the reallocation process. This bid is from another region that did not use the bid and is reallocated to regions based on their membership levels from previous years. Mizuno 15 finished 2nd at the prime time qualifier on April 7th. They too will be looking to improve their bid to an Open Division bid in Reno. There are 3 bids available and 30 teams in the 15 Open Division.

WVBA Mizuno 14
Mizuno 14 has not yet earned a bid to Minneapolis and will be seeking one in the 14 Open Division this weekend in Reno. They will need to finish in the top 5 and hope that two of the other four teams have already earned Open Division bids at another qualifier. There are 3 bids available and 24 teams competing in the 14 Open Division.

WVBA Mizuno 13
Mizuno 13 have already earned a Club National Division bid by winning the prime time qualifier on April 7th. They will be looking to upgrade their bid by winning a national qualifier. This will increase their seeding at JOs and also allow a second team from the Puget Sound Region to go to JOs. There is 1 Club National Division bid available and there are 47 teams competing in the Club Division in Reno.

If you'd like to follow the progress of our teams in Reno, you can check the results at the Far Westerns results page here.

Puget Sound Regionals
The Puget Sound Regional Championships were held last weekend for our youngest three teams.

Mizuno 13 finished 3rd overall. They had a good day of play but lost out to Above the Net in a tough match going 3 sets (25-23, 24-26, 12-15). They introduced jump serving this weekend and did a great job. There were many wonderful comments from spectators about it too! Kudos go to those brave girls that made it happen Kendal Munoz, Miah Diirell, Ally Bowles and Priya Hazari. Miah Diirell and Leah Lechtenberg both had a great tournament overall.

Mizuno 14 tied for 7th overall. Saturday they took 2nd in their pool behind KJ, losing in 3 to them to determine 1st and 2nd (24-26, 25-17, 10-15). Kaci Jones had an outstanding offensive match, Karla Nelson created a lot of opportunity with some very tough serving, and Jazmyne Dodd had some big time swings at her new position at OH. Ashley Swanson came off the bench to contribute some strong blocking all morning in the middle for Christina Street who was ill. Katie Papen got a solid 3 set win over South End Jrs from the setting position. They then played a cross-over match with Capitol VBC and had a rough time with switching venues and keeping their focus. Capitol served tough and Mizuno 14 struggled in serve receive, losing in two.

Sunday morning they came out on fire and took the #2 team in our pool, UPVBC by surprise, winning in two (28-26,25-22). The team had a huge comeback in game two-down by 8 at one point, led by a very strong serving performance. Ashley Kelly had a run of clutch serves that got them back into the match. They then beat Kitsap Jrs. in 2. The 14s pool had a two-way tie for second and our 14s found themselves in a play-off game vs. UPVBC. The team performed with a lot of heart and won 25-19. Their next opponent was a familiar one in PSVBC. After playing a close first game, losing 22-25 they couldn't rally in the second game and lost in two to finish the tournament 7th.

WVBA Mizuno 15
Mizuno 15 finished 3rd overall. More details to come...