17 All Star National 5th at AAU National Tournament

After the great start by the 13 National team, the 17 All Star National team POWER followed right along creating their own spot in Metro history book.    Head Coach Jitka Okolicany set out with her team, guiding her players with an extensive knowledge, strategy, and passion of the game.  Coach Jitka's team played their hearts out and went undefeated the first two days of tournament play. 
On Day 3 they found themselves battling in pool play. Their first match of the day was an intense breath taking one. The first game went in favor of Metro 25-22. The second game they were down and instead of going into 3 games, they fought back one point at a time until the score was within two. The two teams just did not stop, trading point after point until finally POWER put the game away winning 34-32. POWER then faced their second opponent of the day, they battled for a tough match loss losing in 3 games.  Also in their pool was #8 ranked KIVA White. The only way for them to come out at the top of their pool and with hopes of still making it to Gold was to defeat KIVA. This would be no easy tasks with KIVA always being a dominating force and a top ranked.  Metro knew what they had to do and with their game plan set, they attacked! They stunned the KIVA team shutting them down 25-21; game two was another close one, Metro was able to come out on top!  With that POWER gained KIVA’s previous ranking and found themselves in the #8 ranked spot.  With all of the stats in place the pool went into a three way tie. Because Metro defeated KIVA in 2 games, a task that no other team in the pool accomplished, it placed them in the #1 seed. With that POWER gained KIVA’s previous ranking and found themselves in the #8 ranked spot.  
After winning their pool, Metro was faced with a cross over match that evening they had to win in order to hang on to their #8 rank.  They went up against a very disciplined and well skilled team M-Juniors.  After losing the game 1 25-20, the team knew that they could not afford to lose the next game. Every point mattered in game 2, with heart and determination the team came out on top in another close one 27-25. The third game was just as intense as the 2nd both teams fought point for point.  With M-Juniors being the first to 8 Metro took a crucial time out and the girls rallied back to take game 3 with a score 17-15.
The last day of the tournament the team knew they would be facing other challenging teams. First up was ranked #9 team Tsunami. Metro showed them that they were no match and pounded them 25-17; 25-17. That put POWER up facing the #1 ranked team in the tournament A5 Mizuno. A5 took game 1 25-17, but just as quickly Metro turned it around and took game 2 25-18. Metro could not hang on in the 3rd game and it slipped away giving them their final loss 15-8. (A5 Mizuno went on to finish 2nd in the tournament)
Overall 17 All-Star National POWER recorded a 10-2 record winning 22 games and only losing 5. They finished with a point ratio percentage of 1.2252. The team left with their best finish ever at a National Tournament, and turned many eyes of college recruiters looking on. Scarlet Gable was also announced to the All- Tournament Team, the first player ever from Metro to make a National Tournament Team selection! Congratulations on making your mark in Metro history!