By Christine Jinbo

The 17 Club and Open Divisions crowned champions on the final day of competition at the USA Boys Junior Olympic Boys' Volleyball Championships.  In all divisions, approximately 385 boys' volleyball

	Christine Jinbo/ESPN RISE
	Back to back titles for the Balboa Bay team, which defeated Epic two yeaers in a row in consecutive divisions, 16 Open and 17 Open.

teams competed in the tournament, which ended Wednesday, July 8.

Southern California dominated the 17 Open Gold Division as Balboa Bay 17 Quiksilver met Epic 17-Jeff in the championship match of the tournament.  The O.C. prevailed in straight sets (25-14, 25-18) over Epic of San Diego for the crown.  Epic's upset of the No. 1 seed, Outrigger (Honolulu, Hawaii) in the quarter final round gave all-comers a chance at the crown.  

Balboa Bay owned a 4-0 game record against Epic for the tournament.  On the second day of competition of the four day event, Balboa Bay 17Q defeated its eventual finals foe 25-21, 25-23. Balboa Bay, defeated SMBC (Santa Monica, Calif.) in the quarterfinals, SCVC (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) in the semi's en route to the final match.

Setter Connor Olbright received the MVP award and Tim Frydendall, Weston Nielsen and Travis Woloson each received all-tournament honors.

	Christine Jinbo/ESPN RISE
	Listed in alphabetical order: Joey Booth, Connor Curry, Tim Frydendall, Nicholas Iorfino, Tyler Kulakowski, Robbie McNight, Weston Neilsen, Connor Olbright, Reed Thompson,  William Quanstorm, Travis Woloson, Assistant Coaches: Taylor Wilson and Scott Panaro and Head Coach: John Hawks

By Christine Jinbo

The USA Boys' Junior Olympic Volleyball Championship (JOVC), held July 1 through 8, hosted boys teams from around the country.  As the nation mourned the King of Pop, volleyball teams "got to be there" at the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) where the top teams contended for the national championship.

The No. 1 seed Outrigger 17-1 and No. 2 seed OCVC 17-1 must have felt "bad" after they lost in a "thriller", in the quarterfinals.  But after these two teams "beat it", the bracket opened up for all comers.(Read full post)

	Christine Jinbo/ESPN RISE
	Katie Slay reaches for the block.

The USA Junior Olympic Girls' Volleyball Championships, hosted by USA Volleyball at the Miami Beach Convention Center, crowned three champions in 17-and-under age division brackets. The 10-day event runs from June 26 to July 5.

The 17 Open Gold Bracket Championship found Mizuno Long Beach 17 Mizuno (Long Beach, Calif.) on opposite sides of the net from Northern Lights 17-1 (Burnsville, Minn.).

Northern Lights 17-1 captured the Gold Medal Championships in the 17 Open Division of the AAU National Championships (Orlando, Fla.), but could not repeat the feat and fell, 25-20, 29-27, 25-22 to Miz Long Beach 17 Mizuno.

Long Beach Mizuno, which won the major SCVA Las Vegas Invitational in February and qualified through the Southern California Regional, defeated Wave 17 Jeanne Spalding (San Diego, Calif.) 25-19, 26-24, 25-22 in the semifinals and Sunshine 17 (Los Angeles, Calif.) 25-22, 25-21, 25-16 in the quarterfinals.

Northern Lights 17-1 reached the title match with a 25-16, 25-22, 25-22 quarterfinal win over Texas Tornados 17 Mizuno (Houston, Texas) and a 25-22, 25-20, 25-15 victory over Vision 17 Gold (San Jose, Calif.) in the semifinals.(Read full post)

By Christine Jinbo

The USA Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships features 17 tournaments, overlapping between June 26 to July 5, 2009 in Miami, Fla. and divided according to age division. 

ESPN RISE Volleyball wants to hear from participants in the tournament. 

	Leonard Xu/ESPN RISE
	Kelly Reeves of Encinitas WAVE will compete at J.O.'s in hopes of winning another Junior Olympic Championship.

Register now, it's free!  Then come back to the Volleyball Blog and write a comment below.  We want to hear about your team.  How your team is doing?

The 14 Open Division features eight teams from the California with six from the Southern California Region, eight teams from Texas split between the North Texas and Lone Star Regions, and two teams from the same club, St. Louis CYC 14 Blue and 14 Green. 

The other bids in the division split between eight regions, which will vie for the tournament title of Junior Olympic Champions. Open teams listed below.

Once teams advance to the 15 Open Division, the regional breakdown becomes slightly more diverse as eleven other regions, besides California and Texas vie for the crown.

California teams grow in dominance, with eleven teams competing, eight of which hail from Southern California.  Texas teams have slightly less representation with five teams, three from North Texas and two from the Lone Star Region.

Come back as we break down the 16, 17 and 18 Open Divisions in the championships by region. 

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(Read full post)

By Christine Jinbo

USA Volleyball conducts two large scale events which overlap and close out the junior club volleyball season, the Girls' and Boys' Junior Olympic Volleyball Championship. Miami, Fla. is the home for the 2009 Girls' JOVC and Atlanta, Ga. plays host to the boys.

	Courtesy Christine Mirick
	Peter Jasaits passes for MB Surf, a top contender from Southern California.

With a maximum field size of 36 teams in the Open Division, there will be fierce competition among teams, which earned bids through selected "bid" tournaments

The tournaments selected as Bid Tournaments for the 2009 Boys season are as follows:

Bid Tournament - Dates - Maximum Number of Bids
No Dinx Boys Far Westerns
-   January 3-4  -   2
Dennis Lafata Gateway Boys Festival 
-   January 17-18  -   4
Rochester CAN-AM  
-  January 17-18   -   3
SCVA Junior Boys Invitational 
-   January 17-19 -   10
USAV Southeast BBQ  
-  January 23-25  -   2
Molten Wisconsin Boys Volleyball Festival 
-   February 7-8-   4
Nittany Ninvitational (17 & 18 Open)  
-  February 14-15 -   4
NIKE Great Lakes Festival for Boys 
-   February 14-15  -   3
Nittany 2 (14O, 15O, 16O) 
-   February 22-23 -    2
Boys East Coast Championships
-    May 23-25  -   2

USA Volleyball's goal for the Open Division of the Boys Junior Olympic Volleyball Championship, "is to produce an event which will promote the highest level of Boys competition."