Club V finds extra gear in three set win over A5 Volleyball Club

By Adam Burns

​KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jordyn Harvey and Club V have certainly been here before. But Harvey and this year’s 18-year-old Club V squad received their first dose of the Triple Crown Sports WNIT on Saturday inside the Kansas City Convention Center.
 
“I love Triple Crown,” said Harvey, who’s committed to Stanford. “All my friends are here and I get to play with them and against them, and I love how the power pools are set up as you get to play and see great competition all weekend.”
 
Club V coach Reed Carlson agreed with his 6-foot-1 outside hitter.
 
“I love the format of the pool play; it’s fantastic,” Carlson said. “We get to play the toughest teams on Day 1. What other place does that? Today we get to see three different styles of volleyball, which is great. It’s been really close and competitive.”
 
In Harvey’s third and final WNIT experience — but first in power pool play — Club V dropped its first match in a three-set heartbreaker to Drive Nation before knocking off A5 Volleyball Club (Marc) in three sets (23-25, 25-18, 15-10) in R1 PowerA action. Club V dropped its final pool match in straight sets to MAVS KC.
 
“For us, it comes down to consistency,” Carlson said. “We came here to have a day like today where we play (the tough competition) at Triple Crown. We’ll build as we get more of these types of matches. The talent is obviously there and we do a good job of wanting to compete against those teams.”
 
In the win against A5, Club V, of course coming off the tough loss in its tourney opener, relied on the powerful attacking offense, fueled by Harvey, outside hitters Olivia Ruy — an Arkansas commit — and Taliah Lee — a Long Beach State commit — setter Sophie Wendt (Colorado Mesa) and liberos Kambree Rodriguez (Utah State) and Kaieva Johnson (Utah).
 
But it took a comeback effort to notch its first power pool win. After dropping the first set 25-23, Club V found its rhythm and turned the intensity up a notch—including an 8-1 start to the third set.
 
“They are the more athletic team,” Harvey said of A5. “But I think our ball control, our hustle on defense and we have that grit that other teams don’t have. That’s what we push hard no matter what.”
 
“We work hard at having options and finding different ways to score points,” Carlson said. “If we’re not in system, we still want to run fast and create chaos. They’ve done a good job of doing that so when we come here, we’re not lost in the speed.
 
“For us, it comes down to consistency,” the coach added. “We came here to have a day like today where we play (the tough competition) at Triple Crown. We’ll build as we get more of these types of matches. The talent is obviously there and we do a good job of wanting to compete against those teams.”