FEB. 3 — Austin Juniors in 18s and Texas Tornados in 17s made big-time statements at the Tour of Texas over the weekend. Meanwhile AMV 16 Black continued its impressive streak.

The big three of Lauren Galler, Myanna Hellsten and Christi Hahn led Austin to a convincing 3-1 win Sunday over Alamo to capture first place in the 18s Division at the Tour's second stop at Texas Advantage Sports Center. Earlier in the day, Austin swept North Dallas to advance to the finals. Alamo, meanwhile, advanced to the finals with a 3-2 (15-12 in game 5) comeback win over Texas Tornados. Appropriately enough, the match's clinching point came on a vicious kill by Ryan Maspero. In the third place match, the Tornados outlasted North Dallas 3-2. After an opening match loss to Alamo on Saturday night, River City won out to capture the consolation side of the Division 1 bracket.

As expected, the biggest battles were in the 17s division where both semifinal matches as well as the championship and third place match all went 5 games. In the finals, it was the Tornados Kyna Washington and Ellen Orchard matching the power of Austin's Shannon Davis, Lindsey Louis and Michael Faulkner for a 3-2 (16-14) win in a match that looked like it might go on forever. The Tornados had advanced to the championship match with a 3-2 (15-12) win over Willowbrook Molten in the semifinals while Austin outlasted Centex, which was without 6'1" middle Erica Wendell all weekend, 3-2 (15-11). Willowbrook took out Centex 3-2 in the third place match. Dallas Summit, which lost to the Tornados to open play on Saturday night, captured the consolation side of the bracket with a highly-spirited 3-2 win over North Texas region rival North Dallas.

In 16s play, AMV picked up right where it left off last weekend when it won two tournaments in one day. AMV swept through pool play with a 3-0 record then knocked off Austin Juniors 2-1 in an emotional match that went 20-18 in the third game. Austin had also gone undefeated in its pool earlier in the day. Alamo Kaepa took third place with 25-20, 25-18 sweep of Houston Juniors. Dallas Skyline rebounded from pool play struggles to knock off Willowbrook and Texas Tornados knocked off Texas Juniors in other bracket play involving Division 1 teams.

Complete Results and Current Standings

Tour of Texas

Stop #2
(Texas Advantage Center)

18s (Division 1)

1. Austin Juniors
2. Alamo
3. Texas Tornados
4. North Dallas
5. River City
6. Texas Elite
7. Texas Juniors
8. Houston Juniors

17s (Division 1)

1. Texas Tornados
2. Austin Juniors
3. Willowbrook Molten
4. Centex
5. Dallas Summit
6. North Dallas
7. Texas Juniors
8. North Austin Elite

16s (Division 1)

1. AMV Black
2. Austin Juniors Navy
3. Alamo Kaepa
4. Houston Juniors National
5. Dallas Skyline
5. Texas Tornados
7 . Willowbrook Molten
7 . Texas Juniors