SMASH 16s eXtreme is Copper bound after a resilient performance at Nerva II. 

Competing in a 16AAA tournament in Taunton, MA, eXtreme broke out of the stronger pool and galloped to their momentous 1st place result.

Coach Mariah Hladick was pleased with her team's execution of a faster offense. "We've been working on running faster tempo sets at practice and it definitely paid off."

Impressively, eXtreme played ironwoman volleyball for the duration of the tournament, with Hladick expressing pride in the ability of each athlete to play six rotations for the whole day.  "Defensively we were transitioning and reading plays much more consistently."

In pool play, eXtreme split with CT Jrs 15s on a U12 height net, and then split with SMASH 14s on a regulation height net.  With a playoff berth at stake eXtreme delivered a decisive sweep of Metrowest 16 Gold to reach the championship bracket.

Their confidence growing, eXtreme diffused CMass 15 Kryptonite in a 25-12, 25-22 semifinal with aggressive front row attacking and blocking.  

In the truncated single-set final, eXtreme was matched again with CT Jrs 15s.  Hladick noted, "The key turning point was leading 13-8 at the switch and then holding them to 14 total points.  We controlled the tempo and were really consistent and confident in the final points."

 16s eXtreme will now train their sights on Open level play at Nerva III on April 9.