Volleyball: Ultimate’s 15-Gold girls team third at nationals

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With several core players returning to mix with a handful of newcomers, the jury was out this club season as to how Frankfort-based Ultimate Volleyball Club’s Girls 15-Gold team would respond.

Blending the new with the old, the team peaked at the right time, finishing third in the National Division at the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championships held in Atlanta in late June.

“We never had a chemistry issue with this group, and there was never a problem,” coach Phil Rapisardo said. “Fifteen years old is a huge development year as you switch from kid volleyball to competitive volleyball. The girls developed so much individually, and it made them compete more as they saw each other getting better.”

Rapisardo couldn’t have hoped for much better in the winter, when a tryout produced a team of seven girls who had played together for three seasons and five newcomers. The 12 girls attend 10 different high schools, from Lincoln-Way West to Valparaiso.

“The first thing we said at tryouts, the first thing out of my mouth was that our goal was to win Nationals,” Rapisardo said. “You don’t really know what will happen, but there is always the expectation. The talent was there. It was just a matter of getting hot at the right time, and this was a good group that was able to do that.”

Ultimate club director Erin Lorenz credited the team’s knack for picking up an intricate, detailed and fast-moving offensive scheme for the team’s success, and it showed in tournaments throughout the season.

The Gold squad just missed qualifying for the Open Division at Nationals (the strongest of three divisions), its fourth-place finish at the Mideast National Qualifier one spot shy of advancing. The team turned around and finished second at the Northern Lights National Qualifier, advancing in the Club Division (middle of the three).

The team saved its best for a warmup heading into Nationals. The 15-year-olds entered a tourney for 16-year-olds — the Asics Jr. Nationals held at Navy Pier — and won.

“Ideally you want to qualify that first time and not worry about it,” Rapisardo said. “This group was really good at playing the match we were in and focusing on this win, then the next one. It was a pretty intense team, and we just had to maintain our energy throughout.”

For Junior Nationals, Ultimate lost several matches through the four-day gauntlet but always managed to win in must-win situations, advancing all the way to the semifinals.

After finishing 12th and 13th in previous Junior National trips, a first-place finish was not in the cards. A three-set loss to Cleveland’s Blackswamp 15 Oberst prefaced Oberst’s title-match win.

“It was a tough pill to swallow,” Rapisardo said. “You say you just want to medal, but once you get there, you want to win. It’s not an easy thing to do getting to Nationals, and we’re very happy with the medal. The girls were happy, but they wanted to win (it all), especially in a close match.”

Outside hitter Kelli Bates and libero Ashtyn Kapovich were named to the All-Tournament Team at Junior Nationals. Rapisardo also mentioned team captain and setter Taylor Nirchi’s play during the postseason run.

Now Ultimate team members will head back for the high school season at their respective schools, all 12 girls entering their sophomore seasons.

“They have a taste (for Nationals) now,” Rapisardo said. “We understand how to get there, and hopefully the drive is there to take them a notch above. Hopefully there is a bad taste in their mouth from losing that drives them to keep working in the offseason.”