Jason Jones is the CEO and founding father of JBJ Occasions introduced an thought to life to run a membership volleyball AAU Silver State Invitation and NCAA males’s volleyball matches on the Reno Occasions Middle. The school groups that participated on January 31st and February 1st had been eleventh ranked Grand Canyon, Fort Valley State, Belmont Abbey, and primary ranked Lengthy Seaside State. All of the matches had been streamed on Baller TV and free tickets had been supplied to all native highschool boys’ and women’ groups to assist develop the sport. “Jason and his complete JBJ crew deserve quite a lot of credit score for the occasion and success. I feel the occasion has quite a lot of potential for progress. It’s nice to see volleyball rising and other people excited to carry volleyball to areas that don’t traditionally see a lot males’s volleyball,” stated Lengthy Seaside State Head Coach Allan Knipe.
JBJ Occasions has hosted excessive degree volleyball competitions throughout the nation that carry the volleyball group collectively. At any given occasion you possibly can see membership, faculty or professionals competing. Jones and his firm use these occasions as a car to attach all these elements of the sport to come back collectively as one for a weekend. “JBJ Occasions is all about elevating the general expertise in addition to the sport of volleyball. That is greater than only a event, it’s a chance for younger athletes to witness excessive degree collegiate volleyball, join with recruiters, and compete subsequent to among the finest groups within the nation and finest gamers on the planet. JBJ Occasions is dedicated to creating subsequent degree volleyball alternatives, and this previous weekend was no completely different,” stated Jones.
On high of working occasions to attach so many individuals JBJ Occasions is dedicating to giving again. They’ve created a scholarship program, the place at every event they choose one boy and lady on the membership degree to obtain a $777.00 scholarship to assist younger athletes pursue their tutorial and volleyball desires. Woah! Fairly cool. You probably have the urge to offer to this excellent trigger checkout JBJ Occasions on Instagram and direct message them. You possibly can observe them @j.b.jevents.
January 31st Matches:
LBSU vs FVSU: Primary nationally ranked Lengthy Seaside got here into Reno and took care of enterprise towards Fort Valley. The scores within the clear sweep had been (25-19, 25-17, 25-20). The Seaside placed on full show of their depth with six completely different gamers ending with 5 or extra kills. Freshman phenom Moni Nikolov led his squad to a .385 hitting proportion, dished out 27 assists, had eight digs, three aces and 5 kills. “Moni could be very distinctive. He has the flexibility to play the entire recreation at an extremely excessive degree. In actuality he might be an elite reverse, when is fairly uncommon for a setter,” stated Coach Knipe.
Sotiris Siapanis led Lengthy Seaside with eight kills, Isiah Preuitt and Daniil Hershtynovich added seven to the combo. All through the match Kellen Larson and Sebastian Rodriguez had been good within the libero spot passing constantly to maintain Lengthy Seaside in system.
Fort Valley was restricted to a .189 hitting proportion of the match. Taviian Martin put collectively a pleasant match for the Wildcats posting 4 kills on six swings with a .667 hitting proportion. Head Coach Larry Wrather has strategically put a tough schedule collectively for the Wildcats. They’ve performed Ohio State twice, Lengthy Seaside, GCU, Belmont Abbey and Lewis are on the schedule. “All the pieces is to rise up ready to compete on the highest degree. In addition to throwing challenges their means of seeing how we react, studying to dwell in uncomfortable environments in order that we will develop and develop. We need to be within the high 20, so we should see what it’s wish to compete with them, how they carry themselves, how they see the sport, all the things. I consider we are going to begin to hit our stride as convention comes round,” stated Coach Wrather. Final yr the Wildcats earned an automated bid to the NCAA event representing Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Convention. They’re testing themselves early to arrange to make a run at this yr’s NCAA event at Ohio State in Columbus.
GCU vs Belmont Abbey: Grand Canyon got here out of the gate of the Silver State Showcase with a 3-0 victory about Belmont Abbey (25-21, 25-17, 25-16). The match gave GCU a chance to get quite a lot of guys within the match. Over 13 guys obtained on the ground and the Antelope’s hit .324 as a crew. Main the cost for GCU was freshman Trevell Jordan out of the center with six kills on eleven swings with a .455 hitting proportion, three digs and three block assists. Karter Rogers contributed probably the most kills for the Antelopes with a complete of 9.
After the match Head Coach Matt Werle was quoted on the GCU web site, “It was good to get a few of our bench guys a while on the court docket. We’re undoubtedly going to need to tidy some issues up. We performed quite a lot of balls, and I feel our first contact at instances simply actually was not as clear as we wish it to be. We should be higher shifting ahead and be sure that we take alternatives that after we’re on the court docket we will get higher every day.”
Belmont Abbey was led by sophomore exterior hitter Zach Puentes, who had 11 kills and 6 digs. Junior center blocker Jibriel Elhaddad added seven kills and hit a powerful .462. As a crew, Belmont Abbey struggled hitting .103, had 20 hitting errors and recorded 13 service errors.
February 1st Matches:
FVSU vs Belmont Abbey: The Belmont Abbey Crusaders defeated Fort Valley State Wildcats in 4 units (25-21, 25-16, 19-25, 25-23). Setter Joseph Morris distributed 34 assists, and the Crusaders hit .206 on the match. In set two that they had their finest offense set with a .438 hitting proportion. Zach Puentas on the skin continued to be regular and per a season excessive 15 kills.
Belmont Abbey Head Coach Derek Sullivan shared his ideas in regards to the match, “I believed we did an excellent job of serving and passing. I figured each side would have nice offense with a number of first crew convention gamers and All Individuals. The sport was going to come back right down to who may serve and cross properly.”
Fort Valley was capable of present some flashes of greatness within the match. For the third set the Wildcats hit .385 and completed up the set with 15 kills. Isaiah Fed had a heck of a match for Fort Valley, he hit for .412, had 20 kills, one ace and two block assists. Though the crew complete of 27 hitting errors and 17 service errors had been expensive within the match for the Wildcats.
LBSU vs Belmont Abbey: Lengthy Seaside left Reno undefeated on the season with a 8-0 document sweeping Belmont Abbey (25-17, 25-14, 25-20). Main Lengthy Seaside was two freshman Alex Kandev and Moni Nikolov. Kandev hails from Bulgaria and made his means on the ground for the primary time this yr. For the match Kandev had 11 kills, three aces and hit .786. Nikolov continued to who that he can do all points of the sport at a excessive degree with seven kills, hitting .636, 9 digs and 23 assists.
All through the match Lengthy Seaside had full management hitting .507, had three athletes recording over seven kills and solely committing seven attacking errors for the match. Center blocker Jibriel Elhaddad put up an excellent hitting proportion of .429 for the match. Lengthy Seaside’s service stress, blocking and attacking had been simply an excessive amount of for the Crusaders to deal with. “These matches towards high 10 applications assist us in convention. Our different high groups in our convention are dealing with extremely ranked opponents. With a view to put together for convention play, we attempt to hunt down aggressive matches,” stated Coach Sullivan.
GCU vs Fort Valley State: Quantity 11th ranked GCU swept FVSU (25-19, 25-11, 27-25) and performed 12 gamers for the match. Jaxon Herr is the standard staring setter for GCU however was feeling underneath the climate. Freshman Kyle Zediker stepped up and dished out 33 assists. The Antelope’s didn’t skip a beat hitting .321 as a crew and had 4 members of the crew document over seven kills.
Graduate scholar Jarrett Anderson had a crew excessive 9 kills and hit .353. Anderson began his enjoying profession on the Division III NCAA powerhouse Springfield School. Whereas enjoying for Coach Sullivan out east he earned Division III All American honors and now’s thriving on the Division I degree with GCU.
Isiah Fedd continued to be the purpose scorer for the Wildcats. For the match he had ten kills, hit .389 and had one service ace. In set three the Wildcats had probably the most success and confirmed their potential. They recorded 14 kills and hit for .233 within the set. Competing towards three 2024 NCAA Championship playoffs groups will put together them properly for league play.
KP’S High Performers:
Moni Nikolov, Lengthy Seaside State.
Isiah Fedd, Fort Valley State.
Zach Puentes, Belmont Abbey.
Connor Oldani, Grand Canyon.
Kevin Pratte has enthusiastically been concerned in volleyball for over 23 years. Pratte began enjoying in center college and was lucky sufficient to play NCAA Division 1 volleyball at The College of the Pacific. After his enjoying profession Pratte obtained concerned in teaching volleyball. In 2009 Pratte was the graduate assistant coach for the College of Nebraska ladies’s volleyball program. Later in his profession Pratte made teaching stops at College of the Pacific, a number of group faculties and coached at WAVE Volleyball Membership for seven years. At the moment Pratte is a bodily schooling trainer within the San Diego Unified College District, San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary member, a school volleyball recruiting coordinator, hosts a volleyball podcast present, the proprietor of the Center Hitter web site and runs a non-profit group to assist elevate funds to offer boys’ highschool volleyball college students scholarships to play membership volleyball. He’s excited to proceed writing for Volleyball Journal and is raring to cowl the sport.
Basis web site: www.kevinprattefoundation.com
Center Hitter Web site: www.middlehitter.com
KP HERE Podcast: Spotify