Caleb Heck / Dawson Morgan: Coming into the tournament, "Passing the Torch" was considered to be one of the heavy favorites to make a deep push into bracket play. After going 3-1 pools with a point diff of +18 they would earn the 8 seed. After advancing from the Round of 32 in two quick games, the bracket was set for a Round of 16 matchup against Schweppes and a Quarters matchup against Team 7. Schweppes took Heck/Morgan to game 3 after they stole a close game 1 in extras. Heck/Morgan would bounce back and advance onto the Quarters where they would meet Team 7 and advance after 2 serveball heavy games. From there, Volley Dawgs made up of Young Squilliam Pinecone and Bulldog Noah Luskus would meet them in the Semis. After taking game 1, 22-20 Heck/Morgan would find themselves in another close game 2, but this time not prevailing after Dawson put up the worst RPR to date with a 36.2 making it nearly impossible to win. Will and Noah would take an early 5-1 lead game 3 making it an uphill battle. After an error ridden start Heck/Morgan found themselves in a position to take the lead at 13's but the run was weathered well with excellent recovery sets. Heck/Morgan would go on to finish 4th.
Team 7: After going undefeated in pools and having the largest point diff of +42 Thomas and Spencer earned the #1 overall seed heading into bracket earning them a bye out of the Round of 32 and into the Round of 16 where they would beat Hidden Valley in 2. They would advance to face Heck/Morgan in Quarters. This series was very clean and entertaining as the lowest recorded RPR from any player after two games was an 89. After a break heavy game 1 which would go into extras, Team 7 fell 20-22. Game 2 was also close throughout. Team 7 held the lead being up a mini at 21's when the more favorable server, Dawson was set to serve. Unfortunately for Team 7 he hit his only two aces of the game back to back and sent Team 7 out in the Round of 8, leaving them with a T-5 finish.
Zeke Friedman / Kevin Bailey: The 2 Guys Who Weren't on ESPN would find themselves at the top of the day as one of the favorites as they were the 1 seed in a deep pool A. After finishing 3-1, only dropping to Ravi and Spector late, they would earn the 10 seed to face Prelich/Bonowski. After two, they would advance and find themselves in the Round of 16 with a matchup against Gabe Finocchi and Chandler Hertzler. After taking game 1, they would fall in game 2. This would set the scene for a critical game 3 that would send out one of the tournament favorites early. After a game of call ball and mediocre rallies, Zeke and Kevin would end up taking the game and match with it to advance to quarters. After seeing unreal serves from Grant and Coleman game 1, they would take a close game 2. Unfortunately for them, much like the previous round the team who would take game 1 would also take game 3, knocking Kevin and Zeke out as they would finish T-5.
Zac Vance / Ryan Marino: Bangarang decided to run it back after their 4th place run earlier this year at PRA's Kentucky tournament. After going 5-0 in pool play, which included knocking off Schweppes 21-19, the duo would earn the 5 seed and a first round bye heading into bracket. The Round of 16 matchup was against a rising team out of Ohio, as Michael Barkman and Collin Yoder make up By By Spikes. Ryan's serves were clicking throughout the entire series and Zac was able to contribute on the defensive end as well to make for a lopsided series sweep. Onto the quarters they went as they would run into Volley Dawgs consisting of Will Picone and Noah Luskus. The first game was very even to start until midway through when Ryan had 3 straight aces to take a 12-9 lead. Noah then called a critical time out that would eventually swing the series momentum their way. Out of the time out, Bangarang seemed to hit a wall and couldn't recover. Noah went to go on and have his way with the jam the rest of the series and after a surprisingly chippy series, Volley Dawgs would win handily in 2 to result in a T-5 finish.
Max Fiebelkorn / Micah Bouman: Lanky Smoove, the newly formed team from West Michigan teamed up in expert and was a surprise to most coming out of pool play. This duo is new to the competitive scene with it being only their second competition together. After going 2-2 in pool play and beating a notable name such as Ryan Gross and keeping close with Team 7 they would earn the 13 seed to have a first round matchup against the 20 seed, John Zook and Brandon Good. Game 1 would flash before their eyes as JZ and Brandon won 15-10. Game 2 on the other hand showed promise that a game 3 was in the works. However, Lanky Smoove fell in extras 23-21 and would finish T-17.