LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Conventional volleyball logic was thrown completely out the KFC Yum! Center window Friday.
Two more reverse sweeps, making it three of the first four matches in the LOVB Finals?
"Nuts," Omaha coach Suzie Fritz said.
The No. 5 and No. 6 seeds playing for the title?
"Nuts. Nuts," she said.
LOVB Austin and LOVB Omaha both finished the League One Volleyball regular season with 5-11 records, eight games behind top-seeded LOVB Atlanta and five games behind second-seeded LOVB Houston.
No matter, because Friday the ESPN2 audience got its money's worth as fifth-seeded Austin lost the first two sets to Atlanta and came back to win 21-25, 15-25, 25-22, 25-10, 16-14.
And then sixth-seeded Omaha lost the first two sets and came back to scratch out a 15-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-23, 15-12 victory.
Now they'll play for the inaugural LOVB Finals title at 4 p.m. Eastern Sunday, April 13, on ESPN2 in a match you simply could not have fathomed heading into this tournament. But Thursday, Austin opened play with a reverse sweep of fourth-seeded Salt Lake and then Omaha upset third-seeded Madison in four sets.
"I think the league early on wanted to see some parity. They built the teams as such and we felt that all year long," said coach Suzie, whose team had lost 11 of 12 matches heading into this tournament but started the postseason with a clean slate. "Every match was gnarly."
Austin coach Chris McGown, who took over the team in midseason, said simply, "These guys are unreal.'
Nuts. Gnarly. Unreal.
No arguments here.
Austin makes it back-to-back reverse sweeps
Madi Skinner led Austin with a season-best 25 kills, hitting .364, to go with three aces, a block, seven digs and two assists.
Match stats | LOVB Austin roster | LOVB Atlanta roster
"Really, the momentum began to pick up in the fourth," Madi said. "I felt like they were on their heels a little bit and it was an opportunity to attack and dominate and I think we took advantage of that moment and rode the wave the rest of the way."
Molly McCage came up big again, this time with 10 kills while hitting .625 and had an ace, two blocks and two digs.
"I feel like we're pretty battle tested, the number of five-set matches we've had to go through and the times we had to figure it out," coach Chris said. "We did exactly what we wanted and hung in there and in the middle of the third I got kind of fired up and said 'Hey, we need to leave everything out there. Hit the ball as hard as you can and I think our team did great. I just saw this level of aggression and intensity and they responded perfectly."
Logan Eggleston, who had 10 kills, two blocks and 12 digs, agreed and credited teammate Asjia O'Neal.
"I think I knew in the third set. After Chris talked, Asjia put her foot down and said, ‘We're not going to go out like this. We're not going to let this team embarrass us like this. That's not who we are. Let's have some pride and let's figure it out.’ I think her speaking up was really big for us."
Chiaka Ogbogu had eight kills, an ace, four blocks, four digs and an assist. Austin hit .233 and had five aces and eight serving errors. Setter Carli Lloyd had 32 assists, two blocks and five digs, setter Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres had 18 assists and seven digs, and libero Kotoe Inoue had 15 digs and three assists.
Danielle Cuttino led Atlanta with 19 kills, hitting .354, and had a block, seven digs and three assists. McKenzie Adams had 16 kills, an ace, a block and eight digs and Kelsey Cook had nine kills, an ace, a block and 20 digs.
"I think we definitely backed off in our aggression," Kelsey said. "I think we thought they were going to give it to us in the third and then we kind of backed off in being assertive. We were hesitating on a lot of plays, didn't know who was going to take which ball, if a serve was in or out. There was just a lot left out on the court."
Tia Jimerson added six kills, three blocks and three digs. Magdalena Jehlárová had five kills in 10 errorless attacks, two blocks and three digs. Tessa Grubb had five kills, a block and two digs.
Atlanta hit .240 and had five aces with 14 errors. Setter Madi Bugg had 43 assists, a kill, an ace, a block and 10 digs. Libero Piyanut Pannoy had 23 digs and four assists.
"I'm proud of the girls and proud of the team," Kelsey said. "We've had a lot of adversity, for sure, and it's definitely disappointing not to be playing on Sunday."
Omaha continues stunning comeback
Omaha got overpowered in the first set, was so close to winning the second, and then made the plays when it had to win the last three sets.
Match stats | LOVB Omaha roster | LOVB Houston roster
"I never even looked at the score because we just needed to focus on every rally," said Kimberly Drewniok, who led Omaha with 17 kills and five digs. "The level (of play) is so similar and we had to fight for every point ... for me, I didn't believe until the last point that we were going to win this match."
Jordan Larson had 11 kills and was especially effective in the fourth set, when she had five kills with one error in 12 attacks. She added two blocks, 13 digs and three assists. Sami Francis, the Stanford student who was playing in her seventh match, had nine kills, an ace, six blocks and four digs. Lauren Stivrins had nine kills, including the match winner, to go with three blocks and two digs. Emiily Thater had seven kills, two aces, five blocks and three digs.
And Jaali Winters, getting the start at outside in place of injured Madi Kubik-Banks, had seven kills, an ace, an assist and a match-high 22 digs. Kubik-Banks led the team on Thursday with 18 kills while hitting .350.
"We needed Jaali to go do Jaali things," coach Suzie said. "Jaali is probably our hardest worker and maybe one of our most competitive. And she's just freaking cool. She's been frustrated about her role lately but Kubik-Banks was playing great and you've got Larson. We didn't have Madi tonight and we needed Jaali to be great and you knew she was going to step up."
Omaha hit .193 and had five aces with only three errors. Laura Dijkema had 36 assists, a kill and four digs, and Gabby Blossom had 15 assists, an ace and four digs.
Houston, which hit .245 and had seven aces and nine errors, got another great performance from Jordan Thompson. She led with 24 kills, an ace, a block and nine digs. Madi Kingdon Rishel had 17 kills, an ace, a block and 15 digs. Jess Mruzik had 11 kills and 17 digs.
The middles were outstanding. Amber Igiede had nine kills with one error in 15 swings and a block, and Raphaela Folie had seven kills in 15 errorless attacks to go with two aces, two digs and a season-best eight blocks.
Micha Hancock had 51 assists, a kill, three aces and 15 digs.
"The Omaha team played a great match. They believed every time they could get back in the match even though we had many chances to close out the match," said Houston coach Massimo Barbolini, whose team won the midseason LOVB Classic.
"We could have done the easy things better," Micha said. "That will be something we look forward to keying on next season."
