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Hou Skyline 16 Royal, A5 Mizuno 16-1 Gabe and Top Select 16 Elite Hans were safe, for they already held bids. The rest of the nine clubs competing in the gold pools of 16 Open on Day 3 of the Big South Qualifier on Monday in Atlanta were not.

One of the three-team pools could start and finish in the time it would take to explore all the different avenues to a bid. The simplest it seemed was for a team without a bid to win its pool, only in the life of club volleyball even that wasn’t that easy. For it was still possible that a team would have to win its pool, then a semifinal match too in order to clinch a bid outright.