‘Que it up: Triple Crown Volleyball NIT is a Kansas City triple threat

We’re going to Kansas City, where the Triple Crown NIT is in town.

For more than a decade now, the NIT has been synonymous with the best girls’ club volleyball in the country.

Bar none.

It really is a “Who’s Who” of the best the sport has to offer, with dozens of future collegiate All-Americans and certainly a couple of someday Olympians (or more) on the courts at Bartle Hall showcasing their skills.

Triple Crown, however, is about much more than three days of volleyball in Kansas City. It truly is a triple threat.

Threat No. 1: The Talent

In “School of Rock,” the iconic 2003 film starring Jack Black, the focus is on playing one great rock show.

“One great rock show can change the world.”

At the NIT, the principal focus is on the sport of volleyball and the abundance of talent playing in one venue. Every year that I have attended, I have been stunned at how the speed, skill and power of these athletes have accelerated to transform the game into the fast-paced thrill show it is. Would William Morgan recognize this as the sport he invented in 1895 for gentlemen in Holyoke, Massachusetts, as a noonday alternate to the more vigorous basketball being played up the road in Springfield?

The answer, most certainly, is “No.”

There will be 104 18s teams starting play Friday in one big division and, with the exception of Circle City and Metro VB, who anchor parallel tournaments in St. Louis and Washington, D.C., every other prominent club will send their best teams to the NIT, and, for some clubs, their best two teams. This includes, for the first time, the vaunted Sports Performance club, from the Chicago area, that for a long stretch two decades ago featured the best 18s team in the nation.

This year’s SPVB 18 Elite team will be one of 32 playing Friday in four Power Pools of eight. By virtue of their play so far this year, those Power Pool teams have earned the right to play hard matches the first day without worrying about being knocked from contention.

Sports Performance, which features OH Bella Bullington, MB Sidney Hamaker and libero Morgan Asleson; is in Power Pool 4, with the likes of NKYVC (MB Julia Hunt and OH Alivia Skidmore), OTVA Tampa (Taylor Parks) and Six Pack (Payton Petersen).

The top overall seed, TAV 18 Black, heads Power Pool 1. The Dallas-area team features many of the best pure athletes in the  country, including pins Cari Spears, Suli Davis and Jadyn Livings and MB Favor Anyanwu. Home team KC Power, which has two Open qualifier titles to its credit, also is in the pool, as are perennial bully Munciana Samurai, which boasts an outrageous back court; tall and athletic Triangle and San Diego’s Coast, another recent qualifier winner.

SCVC, the defending age group USAV Junior National Open champion, is in Power Pool 2, along with a WAVE team that last week won the Salt Lake City Showdown. A5, with all of its athletes; and Vision, a team with strong setting (Maya Baker) and first-contact prowess (libero Whitney Wallace).

NPJ, representing the Pacific Northwest, is part of Power Pool 3, a grouping of teams that also includes Club V and high-flying middle Taylor Harvey; Mizuno Long Beach and the best senior setter in the country in Charlie Fuerbringer; City, with unstoppable right side Kennedy Osunsanmi; and Milwaukee Sting, with crazy good Anna Bjork, Sophia Wendlick and Lilly Wagner.

The talent doesn’t  at the Power Pools, however. There are 72 other teams, sorted into pools of four, which also are quite good. Only the pool winner and a select number of second-place finishers will remain in contention after Day 1, but that should not be an issue for the likes of Momentum, which features three members of the 2023 national high school champions at Mater Dei; KiVA, with dynamic outsides Charlotte Moriarity and Chloe Smith; Miami Hype, which has a great middle in Jaqueline Taylor, daughter of late NFL great Sean Taylor; Team Pineapple, with powerful OH Morgan Gaerte; and San Gabriel Elite, with its highlight reel player Taylor Yu. Also watch for K2 and FaR Out, two teams that excelled as 18s last year with mostly underclassmen. They will be tough.

Now, I could repeat this for the teams in the other three age groups we cover (17s to 15s), but there’s a flight to catch (and packing to do and breakfast to be had). Just know that the best of the best are here, including defending 16 Open champion Arizona Storm Elite 17 Thunder (amazing outsides Teraya Sigler and Devyn Wiest), defending 15 Open champion Dallas Skyline 16 Royal (powerful middle Keoni Williams; spark plug libero Kiley Brooks; unstoppable RS Taylor Clarke) and defending 14 Open champion TAV 15 Black (S/RS Brynn Stephens and the Livings twins, Naomi and Nyla). You’ll also find 16 players, scattered across almost as many clubs, who were part of the USA Volleyball U19 pipeline, including great setter Campbell Flynn (Legacy 17s), the Dynasty 17s duo of Reese Messer and Abigail Mullen and 1st Alliance’s imposing OH Abby Vander Wal.

Make no mistake: at Triple Crown, the stars of the show are the players themselves.

Threat No. 2: The Recruiters

The Triple Crown website predicts that 500 college coaches will attend the NIT, but the number is actually higher. EVERY Division I program in the country that recruits outside of its immediate area, along with many DII, DIII, NAIA and JUCO schools, will send at least one representative to the Heart of America. Heck, even the University of Phoenix may send someone this year and it doesn’t even have a team!

This is also the first weekend that the NCAA allows Division I coaches to go out and recruit, so they are rarin’ to go.

The bottom line is THIS is the premier recruiting tournament in the country. It happens in February, which is early enough for seniors still looking to find homes. And, because of the relatively new changes to the Division I and II recruiting calendars, it is the first chance for many programs to watch players in 2024. Any player diligently exploring next-level opportunities, and not just the blue chippers, can and will be seen and evaluated at Triple Crown.  Dreams will come true and lives will be changed over the next three days in the Paris of the Plains.

Threat No. 3: The Barbeque

You’re in Kansas City and, fortunately, there are more hours in the day than those devoted to pool or bracket play. Barbeque MUST be on your menu!

I am partial to Q39, which has two locations outside the downtown slot but are worth the drive. The one time I went there, every meat and every side was THE BEST I’d ever had. Oh my gosh! So good!

Others prefer Joe’s or Jack Stack or  Arthur Bryant’s. It doesn’t matter. You’re in the City of Fountains. Barbeque must be had. Maybe more than once!

***

My flight will land at 9:30 tonight, weather permitting (60 percent chance of snow). I’m excited to see the new MCI airport, too. But I’m more excited to see old college and club coaching friends, eat barbeque and watch the best players and teams in this country compete to be NIT champions.

Thanks Triple Crown!

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