The Force 15-1’s secured an Open Division bid to compete at the 2012 Junior National Championships in Columbus, Ohio with a thrilling 3^rd place finish in the Open Division of the Colorado Crossroads Junior National Qualifier.  This will be the teams 2^nd Open Division trip to Junior Nationals after qualifying last year as 14’s.  Only 32 teams in the country qualify for the Open Division of Junior Nationals to compete for a true national championship.

The 15’s started off the weekend Friday morning by winning their 3-team pool with back-to-back straight set victories over the El Paso Diggers of Texas and the hometown favorite Colorado Juniors. Following pool play the 15’s lost a tough crossover match to eventual silver medalist Mizuno Northern Lights.  Advancing to the top 16, play resumed Saturday morning with a hard fought loss to Tstreet from Southern California (20-25, 25-27).  With their backs against the wall, the Force 15’s needed consecutive wins over Southern California’s Coast 15-1’s and unbeaten Kansas City Power 15-1’s in order to advance to the final 8.  Both matches went 3 sets with Force taking Coast 15-12 and KC Power 15-9.  The Force wins over Coast and KC Power advanced the team to the final 8 placing them in a 4-team pool with the unbeaten #1 seed Asics MAVS 15-1’s from Kansas, Show Me 15 Elite from Missouri and Payes Black 15-1 from the NCVA.  Force opened the final 8 pool with a 3 set victory over Payes (25-20, 18-25, 17-15) which set up a showdown with the unbeaten #1 seed MAVS.  MAVS took the 1^st set 25-17 but the Force 15’s battled back once again to tie the match with a 28-26 win in the 2^nd set before MAVS (eventual gold medal winner) took the 3rd set 15-10.  The loss put the Force 15’s at 1-1 in their final pool, making their 3^rd and final match of pool play against Show Me a “must win” in order to secure a spot in the bronze medal match for the 3^rd and final bid. The team rose to the occasion against Show Me with a convincing straight set victory 25-11, 25-18 setting up a rematch with Tstreet for the bronze medal.  Force came out firing on all cylinders against Tstreet with a 25-11 win in the 1^st set followed by a 25-22 win in the second set to grab the bronze medal and secure the 3^rd and final Open Division bid to Junior Nationals.

Force sent 3 other teams to Crossroads this year and here is how they did:

16-1 placed 15th in the 16's OPEN Division - fantastic job!!! 

16-2 placed 44th in the 16's National Division - way to go girls!

17-1 placed 47th in the 17's American Division - congrats!!



Force 14 Gold wins the JSA Kickoff January 14-15 in Sacramento!  Congrats girls!!!  In the same tournament, Force 14 Blue were Silver Champions and Force 14 Red were Bronze Champions.  The weekend before Force 15 Gold took 5th place in the 16's Gold Division and Force 18 Gold took 3rd in the 18's Gold division!  Great Job ladies!!!

2012 NCVA Kickoff Results

• 18-1 13th/Winners of the Silver Division
• 17-1 57th
• 16-2 13th/Winners of the Silver Division
• 16-1 12th
• 15-1 5th
• 14-2 43rd
• 14-1 5th
• 13-1 42nd

Zoe Nightingale on ESPN