Over the course of two days in Indianapolis at the USAV Girls Junior National Championships (GJNC), the teams playing in the 16 Open and 16 USA divisions competed in the same pool of six teams with two matches on Wednesday and the other three on Thursday to round out their five matches each.

(See the players who stood out on Day 2, here.)

For some teams, the winning came and there wasn’t much of a second thought if they would break into the top four teams who would advance to Gold thereafter. But, for others, the pressure was on up until the very last whistle.

Unlike some qualifiers, in a tie situation, there is no playoff to decide which team would advance. There is no one-set-to-25-points or two additional rounds with one team earning a bye. Not here at GJNC.