Moving Up: Rogue330’s 18U gets to Gold Bracket at Eastlake

(From Sunday, March 24, 2024 – Eastlake, OH – Force Sports Athletics)

One step at a time. One play at a time. One set at a time.

Last week in Eastlake, our 18U Rogue Flame team had a Sunday one-day tournament to remember. Or at least one that helped us take a much-awaited next step. After shaking off some rust against the #2 team in Pool D with a 2-set loss, things started to change for Kaleigh Courtock’s team.

In game two of Pool D, the 18s faced a solid #1 seed in the 28th-ranked Erie Sports Center ESC-Joe 18s from Erie, PA. Rogue330’s team was driven by inspired front-row blocking by Kailee Harrington and Adyson Thomas, alongside some powerful hits from Ava Snyder and Ady Stearn. Jenna Eddy – who returned from the Dominican Republic less than twelve hours prior – joined Mandeki L’Bert-Kaalima in setting up our hitters for some terrific kills. Ally Altmayer held it down in the back row, and the team found depth and energy in two of the Rogue330’s 16’s players who helped out today – Lilly Samaco (all-around) and Julie Underwood (back row).

After taking the first set from Erie, our 18s gave up a hard-fought loss in the second set. Like a lot of games this season, endurance was the key, and the team who “outlasts” the other seems to win. Fortunately, our 18s pulled off one of our best wins of the entire season and celebrated a 3-set win that changed the tone of the entire day.

For their final match in pool play, the Rogue 18s got to face Team ECV, and came away with shorter, 2-set win. Serving runs by Ava Snyder, Adyson Thomas, and Jenna Eddy helped speed things up for the Flame. After winning this one, Rogue330’s 18s team got to say these words for the first time this season…

“We’re going to the Gold Bracket!”

Sure, it meant walking about 60 feet to another court, but it was three months in the works for a team that just came together this season. It felt so good to be in the top 8 teams for Gold Bracket play in this 16-teamer in Eastlake. One step at a time, right?

The thing about making it to the Gold Bracket games is that you get scheduled to play against, you know, Gold Bracket teams! We didn’t get much time to “celebrate” before facing off against Infinity VBC’s Pink 18s team – a team loaded with district all-stars, D-2 College recruits, and record-breaking setters.

“I’ve really enjoyed watching this team take on the next challenge,” said club Director Gary Underwood, “but this one was a huge step up at Eastlake.” Though Infinity was missing one or two key players, they still rolled out 8-10 terrific varsity veterans and swept the Rogues in two quick sets. As one parent said, “It was quite an achievement for our team to score 10 points against Infinity in each set today!”

Indeed, it was. Infinity Pink went on to finish third and solidify their ranking among the top 30 teams in the OVR. As for our hometown Rogue330’s, they had nothing to apologize for. Even though they were missing a couple of key players, they made it to the Gold Bracket for the first time and seized one of their best wins of the season. The weekend moved Rogue 18s up to #61 in the region (up from #69), and puts them in a great position to take another next step at the TMM Shoreline Showdown in Sandusky!