H2 16 Black Heads For Gold in Premier League!

This weekend our girls traveled back to the TESL Center for their pool in the Elite 8 of Premier League. The girls were 3-3 so far and needed to finish top two in the pool to head for Gold on February 6.

The first match was against PAO Mizuno and our girls played amazing. We handled PAO’s best effort with ease winning sets 25-15, 25-16. Leading 15-14 in the first set and low on substitutions, Lindsey Rich served us all the way to a 24-15 lead before we won on the next point! Lindsey finished the match 16/16 on serves with 3 aces!

This set up the deciding match with High Performance Orange where the winner was most likely to end up with a Final Four bid. High Performance came out strong with a 6-12 lead then a 11-16 lead before we turned on the jets! Connie Schu led us to a 17-16 lead with a string of aggressive serves that forced out of system balls. The girls battled their way to the finish, earning a 25-21 victory! The second set was just as close. However, our girls were filled with confidence and led most of the match to earn the win 25-20 and sealed their place in gold! This match showed us that no matter what the score, we are never out of the game! Connie ended the match 16/16 serves with an ace! She also contributed with her defense serve receiving an unbelievable 2.7 on 12 attempts with 23 digs!

The girls ended the day with a rematch against High Performance Royal, a team that will be in the hunt at nationals this year. Our girls did not play scared though and fought until the end. Unfortunately, Royal played their best match of the day and took the match 11-25, 9-25. Our spirits are not broken though! If we see them again it will be for 1st or 3rd this weekend of Premier League and our girls want another chance at them!

Last weekend set up Premier League’s Gold Bracket with 4 amazing teams. High Performance Royal, Team Momentum Navy, and both H2 16 Cardinal and H2 16 Black will be competing for first. H2 16 Black will take on Momentum, a matchup that was played earlier. The girls lost the match in three sets after winning the first convincingly and are eager for a rematch!

Hopefully we will meet 16 Cardinal in the championship! Matches start at 2 pm Saturday at the TESL center if you want to stop by and support the club!