Members of Houston Stellar 16 Elite’s volleyball team relished being an underdog this club season. It proved to be golden motivation.

A mid-pack seed at the start of the 36-team 16 USA tournament in the USA Volleyball Junior National Championships, Stellar rolled over all 11 of its opponents to take the gold at the Indiana Convention Center. Its convincing 25-23, 25-14 victory against a much-taller WAVE 16 Jimmy team out of California also propelled it to the No. 1 spot in the final 16s non-Open rankings for the year.

“We’re extremely excited,” said Stellar coach Susan Buechele, a former Oklahoma player. “I feel like we’ve been overlooked all season. We have fought hard, we finish hard, did really well. We really worked to get better. I think something that’s helped us is we kind of stayed under the radar.”