Atlanta tops Omaha in regular season finale for both teams

OMAHA, Nebraska -- League One Volleyball leaders LOVB Atlanta ended its regular season with a flourish Thursday night, sweeping LOVB Omaha  25-23, 25-23, 25-19 in Omaha. 

Atlanta, 13-3, had already clinched the top spot in next week's LOVB Finals, the tournament that will determine the inaugural League One Volleyball champion. Omaha, 5-11, will be the No. 6 seed. 

"It was a good win to finish the regular season," Atlanta coach Paulo Coco.

Match stats | LOVB Atlanta roster | LOVB Omaha roster

Both of the first two sets in Liberty First Credit Union Arena were close. Atlanta had the upper hand throughout the first before Atlanta made a late run. In the second, Omaha had a 21-18 lead when Atlanta went on a 4-0 run. The set was tied at 23 and ended on a block by Tia Jimerson and a kill by McKenzie Adams.

In the third, Atlanta broke a 15-15 tie with a 6-0 burst that included two more blocks by Tia. She finished the match with three kills and three blocks and became the first player in LOVB history to reach 50 blocks in a season.

Atlanta held an 11-5 advantage in blocks, which included four by Magda Jehlarova, who had four kills with one error in eight attacks, and three blocks by McKenzie Adams, who had 10 kills, 12 digs and an assist.

"It's really easy to play behind our block," said Kelsey Cook, who had 12 kills and nine digs. "It's so fun as a defender."

Danielle Cuttino led Atlanta with 12 kills and hit .324 after having just one error in 34 attacks to go with all three of her team's aces and seven digs. In the first set, she surpassed 200 points for the season and was the fifth League One Volleyball player to do so.

"We remained really calm and confident," Danielle said. "We knew it wasn't going to be easy and we had to earn every point." 

Atlanta also got a boost from the return of opposite Tessa Grubbs, who was one of the team's leaders on offense before missing the past eight matches with an injury. She had two kills in four errorless swings and a block.

Setter Madi Bugg, whose team hit .292, had 29 assists and 11 digs. Libero Piyanut Pannoy had 10 digs and two assists.

"Atlanta is so very good and I thought they played so clean," Omaha coach Suzie Fritz said. "We took some big rips and they just kept coming back. They're playing exceptionally well."

Omaha, which hit .168, got 13 kills from Jordan Larson, her most in seven matches. She had an ace, a block and eight digs. Kimberly Drewniok had 12 kills, a block and 11 digs and also eclipsed the 200-point mark. The middles were efficient as Emily Thater had six kills with one error in nine attacks, two blocks, an ace and two digs, and Sami Francis had six kills with no errors in 15 attempts and a block.

"(Atlanta) is a team that doesn't let you do what you want to do," Emily said.

Setter Laura Dijkema had 33 assists and 15 digs and libero Justine Wong-Orantes had 10 digs and five assists.

"We want better outcomes and we talk about that a lot," Fritz said, "but we also want to be pretty invested in the process. If being a person of character and showing up every day and staying present in the moment is part of that process, then we're winning and the results will come for us."

And now the attention turns to LOVB Madison, which plays at LOVB Salt Lake on Friday night. The 8 p.m. Mountain start can be seen on ESPNU and ESPN+ as Madison, winners of six matches in a row, continues its quest to catch LOVB Houston.

If Madison defeats Salt Lake (6-8), second place comes down to Saturday's match between Madison and Houston. At stake is the No. 2 seed in the LOVB Finals that awards a quarterfinal bye into the semifinals.