It’s not as simple to say that Sports Performance 16 C-Fed repeated as the AAU Premier Champions, in 15 Premier last year and now 16 Premier in the 2019 tournament. Yes, the C-Fed team repeated for the club, but the team itself only returned three players from the 15 Premier Championship team – outside hitters Kerrigan Candra and Giorgia Cavalleri, and libero Caroline Barnes.

But in January, Cavalleri suffered an ACL injury and the team had some rearranging to do. SPVB 16 C-Fed pulled up 15s player Maya Sands, an outside hitter, and moved 16 Elite middle Ellie Watson to the team. Still, there is something to be said for the experience of the few core players making it to the final stage once again this year, even as it entered the AAU tournament as the 18th overall seed.