This past weekend Belleville West High school hosted the the Gateway 18s bid event. There were 7 teams fighting it out for a National, USA, and American Bid. The National and USA bids will be played out in the spring Nationals held in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The American Bid will be played with the rest of the USAV Nationals in the summer in Indianapolis. This year is the first year of the new national format for 18s. The girls goal was to attend the first ever USAV spring 18s Nationals!
This team has been extremely close to receiving a bid to nationals the past 3 years and this year they finally put it all together. They beat Show Me Rox and then turned around and beat CYC 18. They then fell to a good High Performance team and had to fight their way back from the loser bracket. They did that by playing CYC once again. They beat CYC in two with the second set winning 25-23! They then clinched their first ever bid to nationals and they took a USA bid getting to go to Milwaukee!
