NLQ 17 Gold Gets an Open Bid!
4/25/2007
Article By: Darrell Frank - 17 Gold
With their backs to the wall, attempting to get a bid for the Open Division after two unsuccessful qualifier attempts, the 17 Gold was
awarded their Open bid for Nationals. 17 Gold was seeded 9th in the tournament and took 2nd.
 Day 1 saw a tough pool with Illini Elite, Front Range and Dunes. Aggressive play ended up with the Gold team winning this pool for the
Day 1. Day 2 saw yet a tougher pool with Nebraska Elite, 1st Alliance, and NVA. A three way tie ended up with the Gold team playing off
against 1st Alliance in a play off game. This 25 point game was immediately after 1st Alliance spanked the Gold team in pool play. The Gold
team was determined to do better than the last 3 tournament losses to 1st Alliance. The Gold team came back with an exciting 27-25 victory
to secure 2nd place in the Day 2 pool, thus moving on to the gold brackets.
Day 3 had two gold pools of three with no teams in the gold that previously had bids; hence no trickle down and 3 of the 6 teams had to fight
for a bid. M1 (seeded 1st in the whole tournament) and Celtic Force were seeded 1 and 2 in this bracket followed by the Gold team. Gold lost
the first game against M1 and came back and won the second game against M1. The 3rd rally game against M1 found Gold down 13-9! Guess who came
back to win? Never say never - the Gold battled back to win! The Gold then needed to beat Celtic Force to secure a bid, otherwise the Gold would
have to play-off for the 3rd bid. The Gold took Celtic Force in 2 games to win their bid!
The Championship was against the Gold team and Nebraska Elite. The Gold team beat Nebraska Elite the day before; however Nebraska Elite came back
to revenge that loss for the Championship. 17 Gold represented Milwaukee Sting well.
 If you noticed not one Gold players name was mentioned above. That is because it was truly a team effort by all players. Everyone did their own hard
work; everyone held each other accountable; everyone played their role; everyone supported the team; everyone had an error; and everyone brought their
personal best. They won their bid through shear determination. Even the team mom (Amy Schleg) did her role superbly by feeding the athletes and making
sure they got their rest (confiscated cell phones each night....sorry boyfriends!).
Most of the parents will require stress therapy from watching some of the matches. The mothers' lucked out however, because they made a bet on day 1 with
their daughters that if they won the tournament that they and their daughter would get a belly button piercing! Oh… so close to hardware!
[Editors Note: The team skipped out on their tournament pic (for shame). I would like to thank 12 Gold for their help as 'stand-ins.']
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Sting 17 Gold MH, Melissa Hastings (Catholic Memorial) is heading to the
city of big shoulders, the windy city, the city where deep dish pizza is it's own food group - Chicago. Melissa will be joining the Loyola Ramblers in the fall of
2008. Not only is it not too far from home but a lot of home will be with her at Loyola where not only is Head Coach Marcie Bomhack a Sting alum, but she will
be joining two other Sting alums on the squad. Congratulations Melissa!
At the Northern Lights Qualifier, they went 8 and 0 in matches, beating Frong Range in the Championships! Each and every player contributed to
the successful weekend by making key serves, kills, digs and blocks. The win was a total team effort, both on and off the court! These ten
girls are scrappy defensively, aggressive offensively, serve their brains out, and block their opponents like there is no tomorrow! They are intense,
yet smiley on the court at the same time They are focused, but truly have fun while playing They high five each other after each point, they
willingly sub in and out for each other, and they have a unified goal - - to win.
