AAU Nationals is a tricky thing; not in a good or bad way, but it’s just the way it’s always been. With no need for teams to qualify, teams can enter themselves into whichever division they desire. And, when it comes time to do the tournament seeding, results in Advanced Event Systems (AES) matters.

So, when teams like Bonneville 17s piece together a new team from different age divisions and local clubs, naturally they became a four-seed on Day 1 in their pool.

In fact, the entire Bonneville team you’ll see at AAU Nationals has had just one practice together as a whole to make sure everyone was on the same page for serve receive and working as a unit. Starting outside hitter Baylee Peterson, right-side Macie Gordon, and libero Alexis Weaver were added to the rest of the team who had played 18s together all season.