Sunshine Wins Two Titles on 17s Days at GJNC

Sunshine 17 LA (Pacific Palisades, Calif./SCVA) swept through the 17 Open division to capture the title July 4 at the 2021 USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship.

Sunshine lost just one set in the tournament and wrapped up gold with a 25-9, 25-14 win over WAVE 17 Rachel (Del Mar, Calif./SCVA).

Middle blocker Kennedy Hill of Sunshine was understandably joyous after the final match.

“I feel so accomplished and so elated,” she said. “I could cry right now. We worked so hard for this moment, and we finally did it. We have developed so many new skills, got a new coach, Cari Klein, who made us come to practice at 7 a.m. some days, but it all paid off.”

17 National
Epic United 17 Elite (Hammond, Ind./Great Lakes) defeated Michio Chicago 17 National (Evergreen Park, Ill./Great Lakes) 25-20, 19-25, 15-8 to win the 17 National Division. Epic went 10-1 during the tournament.

17 American
Sunshine Volleyball won a second 17s title as Sunshine 17 Westside defeated Gulfside 17U Prime (Naples, Fla./Florida) 25-18, 25-17 for the National division title. Sunshine did not lose a match during the tournament.

17 USA
Houston Juniors 17 Elite (Houston, Texas/Lone Star) lost just one match en route to winning the 17 USA title. The squad defeated Gainesville 17 Elite (Gainesville, Fla./Florida), 27-25, 25-16.

“This journey has been crazy,” said HJV outside hitter Sophie Agee. “We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs. We’ve had so many injuries, and it’s just amazing to be here and win this title.”

Head coach Jeff Ham said that at one point the team was down to seven players, and he was forced to switch up lineups constantly to make it work.

“We just keep believing; work on the process, and it came through for us this weekend,” he said.

17 Patriot
WAVE 17 Kara (Del Mar, Calif./SCVA) finished 12-2 and beat Vegas United G17Navy 25-21, 25-21 for the Patriot title.