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Members of AIM Miguel have that championship smile after winning the Far Western qualifier last month. Pictured from left are, botton row: Amanda Curry (Lago Vista), Mallory Pickrell (Westlake), Amy Buros (Westwood), Brooke Pohl (Lake Travis); middle row: Anne Davis (Bowie), Taylor Stanke (McCallum), Mia Chamblee (Westlake), Sarah Camp (Westlake), Lindsay Brown (McNeil), Morgan Wood (Cedar Park); top row: coach Miguel Saenz and AIM Director Barb Shelton. AIM Miguel was just one of a number of Texas 16s teams that had an impact on the national scene this year.

The Best of Texas

FINAL Club Rankings

May 18 — And in the end all is right with the Texas volleyball world. Our three pre-season #1s - Texas Tornados 18s, Texas Advantage 17s and Alamo 16s - all finish at the top of our final ranking of the best cub teams in Texas. But it wasn't easy.

Ironically, the team that the smoothest ride throughout the season was the Texas Tornados 18s. That was expected to be the age group with the potential for the most turmoil. Instead, from the Tour qualifier through the Lone Star qualifier, no other Texas team really challenged the Tornados for #1.

The 17s were expected to be a battle between Texas Advantage and Austin Juniors. Since TAV doesn't play the tour there were only three meetings between the two powers with two coming at the Lone Star qualifier. TAV took two of the three meetings - the final win coming in the championship at Lone Star - to earn bragging rights.

In 16s, defending national champion Alamo had a much more difficult time than expected. Injuries to top players were a problem all season. In addition, teams like Texas Advantage, Texas Tornados, Willowbrook, Austin Juniors and Dallas Skyline are beginning to catch up to Alamo in size and ability. The team plays with the heart of a champion, however, and despite all the challenges they still managed to win the Tour then capped off the season by winning Lone Star.

Most of our pre-season top 10 teams proved to be among the state's best over the course of the season and finish the season ranked, although a few pre-season unranked teams did work their way in before it was all over.

Surprise team of the year has to be Houston Juniors 18s who came almost out of nowhere over the final month, highlighted by a fourth place finish at Lone Star to earn an Open bid to the national championships. As a result they jump to #2 in our 18s rankings. Are they the second best team in the state? That may be a topic for debate but there is no debate over the fact that they did what they had to do at Lone Star, beating Austin and AMV in Gold bracket play, so they earned their ranking on the court.

The other pre-season unranked team that finished in the Top 10 is Hit-Away, which proved all season that even if you don't have a lot of height, good defense and ball control will carry you a long way. In this case it carried them to a second place finish in the Lone Star region and a Club berth at the JOs.

A couple of #2 teams who just missed a spot in the rankings deserve mention - Texas Advantage National and Texas Tornados Dan. Both earned Club bids at national qualifiers and had impressive wins over the course of the season.

North Dallas and Club Texas were the only pre-season unranked teams in 17s to finish in the Top 10.

Two teams that just missed the rankings but deserve mention are TAV's #2 team, which qualified in Club at two different qualifiers, and AIM Kaepa, which was in and out of the rankings all season and also will be competing in Club at the JOs. AIM had a strong showing in the club division at Lone Star and followed that with another strong showing at the Lone Star region that included a win over Willowbrook, but in the end they just missed. Texas Riptide and Texas Juniors also had their moments during the season but the depth of the 17s division kept them out.

The 16s, of course, was the most competitive age group all season. Seven Texas teams qualified for Open at the JOs and over the course of the season it seemed that just about every one of the top teams beat each other. A perfect example of the depth of the 16s field was the Gold pool at Lone Star in which Alamo, TAV, Willowbrook and Skyline all were 1-1 going into the final two matches. And the two teams that already had JO bids - Willowbrook and TAV - finished third and fourth in the pool (TAV finished fourth despite beating Alamo). That gives you an example of just close the rankings are. TAV actually beat Alamo twice this season but based on the final day of Lone Star only ends up at #6. And then there is AMV, which had a very disappointing Lone Star, and falls to #10. Of course, AMV will also be competing in Open at nationals.

The 16s age group is so deep that some very good teams like Club Texas, North Dallas, Bexar County, South Shore, Texas Image, High Plains, Texas Power and even #2 teams from Willowbrook, Austin and Skyline could easily have finished in the rankings.

So here we are, six months since we made or predictions, and this is how it all shakes out - our final ranking of the top club teams in Texas.

THE RANKINGS

18s

17s

16s