WVBA Mizuno 12 split into two teams on Sunday for their first tournament of the year. They both earned spots in the Gold Division (Flight 1) of next month's Power League on Feb. 5th. We will continue to mix squads with our 12s for the next few tournaments or until we find a good balance of players for both teams.

WVBA Mizuno 13 held their position in the Bronze Division after round 2 on Saturday. They will be the #6 seed in the Bronze Division for round 3 of the 14U Power League on 2/4.

WVBA Mizuno 17 went 2-3 on Sunday, with the three losses coming to the only three teams that finished ahead of them in the Gold Division. The 4th place finish was good enough to earn a spot in the Platinum Division of Power League on Feb. 5th in Kelso, WA.

The Platinum Division is an inter-regional division with the top four teams from the Puget Sound Region combined with the top four teams from the neighborhing region to the south, the Columbia Empire Region, which encompases largely the state of Oregon and the southern-most few counties of Washington.

Each month the top three teams from each region will remain in the Platinum Division and the 4th place team will drop to the Gold Division of their respective regional power leagues while the winner of the Gold Division from each region will earn a spot in the Platinum Division for the following month.

WVBA 16s Opposite Casey Schoenlein Towers over Cowlitz Blockers at MLK

WVBA Mizuno 18-Shannon went undefeated on Sunday and finished 1st overall to also earn the top seed into Platinum. WVBA Mizuno 18-Chris finished 7th in Gold and will be the 3rd seed in the Gold Division on Feb. 4th.

WVBA Mizuno 14, WVBA Mizuno 15, and WVBA Mizuno 16 had the weekend off and will play their 2nd round of Power League this coming Sunday.

WVBA 16s will be the #1 seed on Pool A of the Gold Division at the Lake Volleyball Club Training Center in Lake Stevens.

WVBA 15s will be the #2 seed in Pool A of the Bronze Division at the Impact Sports Academy in University Place, WA.

WVBA 14s will be the #1 seed in Pool B of the Silver Division of the 15s Power League. They will be playing at Curtis High School in University Place, WA.

If you have any questions regarding Washington Volleyball Academy, please contact our Operations Manager Jill Gunsolus by email at Jill@wvba.org.

MLK Oregon Team Classic
WVBA 15s-18s returned from their first road trip to Eugene, OR last weekend. They were participating in the Oregon MLK Team Classic held at the University of Oregon on January 14th-16th.

This tournament featured the top teams from Oregon and Washington and provided the clubs an early glimpse of how they may stack up in inter-regional competition.

All teams competed well and learned lots of things about their teams and what to focus their training on.

All three teams competing in the 18 Open division finished first in their pools in round 1 and round 2 on Saturday and Sunday to seed into the 14-team Gold Division bracket for Monday.

18-Shannon was holding the #2 overall seed so she had a first round bye. 18-Chris and the Academy 17s both advanced into the quarterfinals with wins in their first-round matches.

18-Chris outlasted Nike NW 18 Air/Max in 2 sets (25-23, 26-24). WVBA 17s beat Capitol Ice 17 (25-8, 25-15). 18-Chris was defeated by Rimrock 18 National (12-25, 18-25) to finish 5th. Academy 17s had to face 18-Shannon in order to advance. The crowd seemed 5-deep around the court as they were treated to a great match. 18-Shannon prevailed 17-15 in the 3rd to advance to the semi-finals while the 17s finished tied for 5th with 18-Chris.

18-Shannon jumped all over Rimrock in the first set winning 25-15 but had to withstand a strong comeback to hold on and win the second set 28-26. Nike NW 18 Air/Elite defeated KJ 18 Baden in the other semi-final in an exciting 3-set thriller. Nike beat 18-Shannon in the final (20-25, 25-27) to take the title. It was a good showing by our three 18U teams for our first inter-regional competition.

WVBA Mizuno 16 were seeded #1 overall and held that seed through the first day and then were upset by a very solid OJVA 16 Gold team from Oregon. The Academy 16s worked their way into the semi-finals with wins over Boise River 16-1 (25-18, 25-23) and KJ 16 Baden (25-16, 16-25, 15-9) to set up a rematch with OJVA 16-Gold. Again OJVA proved to be too consistent with their ball control and defeated WVBA 16s for the second time. OJVA went on to win the finals over 253 Elite 16 in two short sets (25-15, 25-13).

WVBA Mizuno 15 came into the tournament with a reasonable #18 seed putting them in the power pools for round 1 (top half of all teams). The Academy 15s finished tied for second with a win over OVA 16-Elite (13-25, 25-22, 15-9) and losses to ITVC 16 Black (10-25, 16-25) and Webfoot 16 Gold (17-25, 13-25). WVBA 15s lost the 3-way tiebreaker (set % then point %) to finish 4th and move down the division 2 for Sunday.

Results were better for WVBA 15s on Sunday with wins over Nortshore Jrs 15 Black (25-15, 25-11), Portland VBC 16-2 (25-20, 27-25), but stumbled against Mount Hood 16-1 (22-25, 22-25). This finish moved the Academy 15s into the Bronze bracket for Monday.

WVBA 15s cruised past Salem 16-Black (25-22, 25-22) but were upended by Wave 16 Black (23-25, 22-25) to finish 5th in Bronze.