FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas – After LOVB Houston defeated LOVB Atlanta in a long, tough five-set match Friday night, you might have expected both teams to be dragging on Saturday.
But the two top teams in League One Volleyball proved their resilience as Atlanta went five again to beat LOVB Salt Lake 25-17, 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-11 before Houston staged a couple of rallies as it defeated LOVB Austin 27-25, 25-18, 19-25, 25-22.
Match stats | LOVB Salt Lake roster | LOVB Atlanta roster
"I'm very proud of our team," Atlanta coach Paolo Coco said. "They are showing a lot of character. When you play (back to back) it's not easy to play the second match. Even more when you play the first match on the second day. You have 20 hours to play again and we played five sets. And we played five more sets today and it's not easy."
Atlanta is 10-3 with three games left and maintained its two-game lead over Houston (8-5) as Atlanta has all but locked up the top seed and Houston holds the upper hand for the No. 2 spot in the April LOVB Finals. First and second place get rewarded with byes into the quarterfinals.
"The results of these two days are very important for the standings," Houston coach Massimo Barbolini said. "Now we have second place with a lot of advantages over the other teams and it's important that we keep trying to win as many matches as possible, because it's the best way to prepare for the Finals."
Salt Lake (5-7) has the same record as idle LOVB Madison, while Austin (4-7) is even with idle LOVB Omaha in the six-team league.
Atlanta, playing its third five-setter in four matches and sixth this season, dominated the first set against Salt Lake, but after that the margins were slim.
"I think our team is really good at five-setters at this point," said Kelsey Cook, who had a season-best 18 kills and a team-high 21 digs.
Her .333 hitting percentage was her second-best of the season, and the digs total was also a season best. She added an ace, two blocks and an assist.
Danielle Cuttino, coming off a 24-kill performance the night before, had 19 more to go with a block and six digs. McKenzie Adams had 12 kills, an ace, a block and 12 digs.
Both middles, Tia Jimerson and Magda Jehlarova, had six kills. Tia, who hit .357, had five blocks, five digs and an assist. Magda – who opened the match with three consecutive kills – had hit .417 and added three blocks, two digs and an assist.
"I think our middles did a really good job of blocking pin to pin and touching a lot of balls," setter Madi Bugg said.
Gia Day continued to come off the bench and give a spark, this time with six kills and one error in 13 attacks to hit .385.
Atlanta hit .296 and had four aces and 10 serving errors. Bugg had 49 assists, a block and 10 digs. Libero Piyanut Pannoy had 16 digs and six assists.
Salt Lake (5-7) hit .211 and had five aces – three by Roni Jones-Perry – and 10 errors.
Skylar Fields finished with 20 kills, which included kills for Salt Lake's last five points in the fourth set. She had an ace, four blocks and four digs. She was lethal from both the right side and coming out of the back row.
"No matter what the situation, my team believes in me so much I can go out there and help the team in any way possible," said Skylar, who had 19 of her kills in the final four sets.
Roni had 14 kills, a block, eight digs and three assists. Dani Drews had 10 kills, an ace, a block, seven digs and an assist. Haleigh Washington hit .353 with seven kills and had three blocks and four digs.
Jordyn Poulter had 21 assists and nine digs, but was replaced at setter by Tamaki Matsui, who had season highs of 27 assists and eight digs.
"Slow start for us but then we came back and battled," Salt Lake coach Tama Miyashiro said. "We came up a little short, but as I told my team, I think this will serve us well in the end.
"And when you don't capitalize against a team like Atlanta they will capitalize. A lot of good lessons and a good battle for us."
This was their fourth meeting. Salt Lake beat Atlanta in four to open the LOVB season. Atlanta swept their next match and then came away with a four-set win on February 7.
In the nightcap in the Fort Bend County Epicenter, Houston improved to 3-1 against Austin after fighting off two set points in the first and then finishing on a 12-3 in the fourth. It was tied 22-22 on a kill by Karin Palgutova, Houston went up 23-22 on a kill by Jordan Thompson and then took a 24-22 lead when Raphaela Folie buried an overpass set up by a vicious serve by Micha Hancock. The match ended with a tremendous dig by defensive specialist Key Alves and a kill by Jess Mruzik.
Match stats | LOVB Austin roster | LOVB Houston roster
"It shows we never give up," Massimo said. "It's important. In sports it means a lot."
Thompson led her team again, finishing with 19 kills despite hitting .164. She had three blocks, 11 digs and an assist. Jess had 14 kills, two digs and an assist and Madi Kingdon Rishel had eight kills, two aces, a block, 13 digs and an assist.
"We knew it was going to be a battle. They're a very good team and we played a gnarly five-set match last night," Jess said. "I thought we did a really good job in sets one and two of pushing and keeping our foot on the gas. In sets three and four, we backed off a bit."
Raphaela hit .333 with six kills, an ace, two blocks and a dig and Amber Igiede had five kills, an ace, a block and four digs.
Houston hit .222 and six aces and five serving errors. That included an ace by Micha, who had 45 assists, eight digs, and tied her season best with five kills in six errorless attacks. Key, who had an ace, made five digs.
Austin, which hit .226, had two aces and seven errors. Madisen Skinner tied her season best with 23 kills and added two blocks, 13 digs and an assist. Chiaka Ogbogu had 10 kills, hit .400, and had an ace, a block and three digs. Logan Eggleston had eight kills, four blocks, six digs and an assist. Molly McCage had seven kills in 17 errorless attacks to hit .412 and had a season-best seven blocks and three digs. Alessia Gennari, getting her first start since opening week, had seven kills, an ace, two blocks, a season-best 13 digs and an assist.
Setter Carli Lloyd had 46 assists, two kills in four errorless tries, two blocks and 10 digs. Libero Zoe Jarvis added 15 digs and three assists.
"These are really tough losses but we played really good volleyball for long stretches, but just didn't make the plays when we needed to," said Austin coach Chris McGown, whose team dropped its third match in a row. "We had them in the first, we had them in the fourth, and they were able to chip back. Credit to them, obviously great players and great athletes doing great things on that side of the net. I feel like we're really close."
The next League One Volleyball action is Thursday, March 20, when LOVB Madison plays at Salt Lake.
