HOUSTON, TEXAS – LOVB Atlanta Volleyball finally got over the Houston blues Thursday night, beating their rivals LOVB Houston 13-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20 at the Fort Bend Country Epicenter.
Match stats | LOVB Atlanta roster | LOVB Houston roster
The win secured Atlanta (12-3) the No. 1 seed in April’s LOVB Finals, the season-ending tournament that will decide the inaugural League One Volleyball champion. They’ll begin play in the semifinal round and face the winner of the No. 4/No. 5 quarterfinal.
Houston (9-6) needs a win in their final match or a LOVB Madison loss once in its final three to clinch second place.
“It’s great to be number one going into the tournament, you get that first bye,” said Atlanta outside hitter McKenzie Adams, “but we’re going to prepare the same way we do every day. Show up, practice hard, and focus on the gameplan for whatever team is next.”
McKenzie led all players with 18 points Thursday night, all but three coming in the final three frames. The Schertz, Texas, native hit .462 with 15 kills, two aces, a block and eight digs to earn player of the match honors
Fellow outside Kelsey Cook added 10 points and a match-leading 16 digs. She leads the league with 207 digs on the year and is the first player to cross the 200-dig mark.
Opposite Danielle Cuttino scored 14 points for Atlanta – 10 kills, three blocks, one ace – while libero Piyanut Pannoy made 12 digs.
Making a full return from injury, Rachel Fairbanks dished out 31 assists. Atlanta’s attackers hit .328 off the rookie and .214 overall.
LOVB Houston athletes also reached a couple milestones as Jordan Thompson landed her 200th kill and Micha Hancock served up her 20th ace of the season in the second set. Jordan, who now leads the league with 207 kills, scored her 200th point last week.
Micha leads the league in aces, one ahead of Kelsey.
Outside hitter Madi Kingdon Rishel tied her season high with 15 kills, adding eight digs, one block, and one assist. Outside hitter Jess Mruzik also reached double-digit points, contributing seven kills, two aces, and one block.
Middle blocker Amber Igiede tallied seven kills on 10 swings for a .700 attack efficiency, matching the LOVB record.
After opening the match with its biggest single-set loss of the season, Atlanta refocused and improved across all areas including reception and digs which gave them the offensive momentum they needed to win the remaining three sets. The second and third sets were competitive with Atlanta ending the second on a 10-2 run and winning the final four points of the third.
“I’m proud of how we changed the game in the second set,” Atlanta head coach Paulo Coco said. “We continued to fight, tried to find solutions, tried to find a way to win. We got a little better in our system, reception improved, and we touched a lot of digs. That’s why the game changed.
“It was important to see the team work like this today, fighting for a match after that first set was amazing.”
In the fourth, the visitors took the lead at 7-6 and never trailed again.
“We didn’t play with as much attention. It was not necessary to lose this match,” Houston head coach Massimo Barbolini said. “But now we know better. If you want to win the Finals, first we need to win against Madison, then win match by match. But if we play against [Atlanta] again, we have to play better.”
Before Thursday, Atlanta and Houston had a trio of meetings in 2025 with Houston winning each time. The first meeting came in the LOVB Classic championship match, which Houston won in four sets. Houston completed a reverse sweep March 7 in Atlanta during the first regular season contest between the league leaders, and they avoided the same fate seven days later with a five-set win in Houston.
“As an athlete you want that competitive feeling every game, and playing Atlanta, it brings that out of us,” Amber said. “I like to see it as a rivalry. Lots of challenges and talking today, that’s what makes the game really fun.”
Atlanta closes out its regular season Thursday, April 3 at LOVB Omaha while Houston plays Madison on April 5 in a neutral site match at LOVB Salt Lake.
