MPC Club Championship Preview

The MPC Girls Club Championships are taking place this weekend and there are many different programs represented.

This is a unique tournament because there are three different ways to win.

The Club Championship:  Bring as many teams from your club as possible to enhance your program’s chances to be crowned the overall club champion.  Five (5) points will be awarded to a program for every victory one of their team earns. The program with the most overall points will be awarded the club championship cup.

The Director’s Cup: The program with the highest percentage (%) of wins will capture the director’s cup.

Programs must bring a minimum of three (3) teams in the tournament to be eligible for the director’s cup.

Pool Championship: Every team will compete to be champion of their own division/pool.

All-Tournament teams and MVPs will be named for every pool.

POOL A – 5^th Grade

Bay State Jaguars, NE Flames both made it to the D2 state semi-finals in their respective state’s tournament. The NE Rebels enter the tournament having been a quarterfinalist at the D2 state tourney and posted an undefeated record at the MA Huskies Spring Jam. The unknowns in this bracket are the MPlex, Fieldhouse Sting and MPC Noel. It will be interesting to see how this pool takes shape with these up and coming hoopsters.

POOL B – 6^th Grade

This bracket includes MPC Nagle, RI Breakers Brogna, Bay State Blizzard Bass, Cape Cod Bulls, MPC Maher, CT Breakers Ellington and Central Mass Tar Heels. Ari Tristani leads MPC Nagle into this weekend’s tournament. The MPC Nagle squad has a well over .500 record and will look to continue its winning ways.

POOL C – 7^th Grade

Sting Elite should prove to be some stiff competition for the Seaside Sizzle, Cape Cod Bulls, Bay State Blizzard and MPC Keppa.  Sting Elite hit the Zero Gravity circuit this spring and played in the Gold Rush, Queen of Boston, Junior Elite and Nationals. This squad is filled with athletic ballers from Sudbury, Lexington, Wellesley and Acton. Who will survive this 5-team round robin?

POOL D – 6^th / 7^th Grade

The Central Mass Shamrocks come with championship pedigree. As 5^th graders, they were the D2 state champions and last year they made the Final 4. Led by Rachel McMenemy, Alexi Austin and Shannon Sampson, the CM Shamrocks look to add another tournament victory to its resume.

Dan Nagle’s 6^th graders will look to compete for a championship in their home gym led by Kate Wallace.

Other competitors in this pool will be New England Lady Panthers, MPC Noel, NE Rebels Shaughnessy and NE Rebels Lagrega.

POOL E – 8^th/9^th

In a pool that features two MPC squads, three RI squads and NC Blaze, this bracket is as wide open as it gets. Mordarski’s squad is tough as nails and gets after it defensively and MPC Musco’s squad would love to end this season on a high note led by Cassidy Musco, Jessica Fitzgerald and Hannah Cullen.

POOL F – 8^th

This pool features RI Breakers Riley, Sting Elite, Fieldhouse Sting, Cape Cod Bulls, South Shore Wolfpack and Team BSB.

The RI Breakers are a newly-formed team that has burst onto the scene by playing some competitive and inspired basketball. Diana Bianco Riley, Ashley Omigie, Olympia Good and Grace Hagberg lead the way for the Breakers.

POOL G – 10^th

This round robin group features MPC Walker, Bay State Monarchs, Team Providence, Troy City Tigers and Bay State Magic Elite Roche.

MPC Walker has been hot as of late and earned the MA state D3 title led by Tiah Walker, Jillian Crespi and Ashley Rose.

Team Providence is led by Sam Kent and Alannah Cooley and they have won multiple tournaments this season.

Bay State Magic Roche is loaded with talent led by Jenna Roche, Jenn Butka and Liana Cunningham. A year removed from being crowned D1 state champions, they’ve had an extremely strong second half of the season and I am looking forward to watching them play at their usual high intensity level.

POOL H – Varsity

MPC is well represented in this division with the MPC Thunder, MPC Nagle and MPC Swish all vying for the title. In order for an MPC team to win, they will have to go through the NE Rebels, Bay State Monarchs, Bay State Blizzard and Cape Cod Bulls.

MPC Nagle, led by smooth scoring guard Danielle Arcidiaono, qualified for the final four of the D3 MA state tournament and had a very successful spring campaign.

MPC Thunder recently earned the D2 title in convincing fashion. This team has fought through a few season ending injuries (Kiersten Warner and Kelsie Savageau) and still manages to be one of the most competitive teams in the state at this age level. This team is comprised of some of the top players in the Hockomock and Tri-Valley League: Danielle Perron (North Attleboro), Amy Assad (Millis), Jillian Spolidoro (Franklin), Emily Sullivan (King Phillip) and Layne Cassidy (Millis).

The NE Rebels are coming off a 2-1 showing at the heralded GymRat Challenge in Albany where Jillian Webber and Catherine Sweeney were named to the all-tournament team. This team comprised of mostly 9^th graders, is no stranger to playing up in age as they have all season culminating in a D2 10^th grade state title.

The MPC Swish are the babies of this group. This 8^th grade team enters this tournament with a 39-3 record on the season, mostly playing up a couple of age groups. This hometown team is led by the explosive backcourt of Nicole Gallagher and Ashley Sampson, versatile inside-out players Tess Sussman, Kiera Fernandes, Kaitlyn Guenet and Anna Shaughnessy. This team is strong off the bench led by spark plug Lily Sykes, shooters Kaylin Reen and Shannon Lynch, work horse Ali Ready and Shannon Smally in the post.