OMAHA, Nebraska – The hometown heroes more than did their parts as LOVB Omaha played its First Serve Friday night, defeating LOVB Madison 25-20, 24-26, 25-18, 25-23 in a packed Liberty First Credit Union Arena.
On a team with six athletes who played collegiately in the Omaha area, German-born Kimberly Drewniok stole the spotlight. A 6-2 opposite from Balve, Germany, Kimberly was named player of the match after she had 14 kills, hit .297, and had three blocks and five digs. She must love playing Madison, because in a four-set win over Madison just six days earlier, the 10th-year pro who has played in Germany, Italy, Türkiye and Serbia, had 19 kills, hitting .531.
Match Stats | LOVB Omaha Roster | LOVB Madison Roster
Jaali Winters, the outside who played across town at Creighton, led Omaha with 16 kills and had a block and nine digs. Lauren Stivrins, who starred at Nebraska, added 10 kills, and the Olympic veteran and former Husker great, Jordan Larson, had a tremendous all-around effort with eight kills, three aces, two blocks, nine digs and five assists.
It wasn't lost on Jordan that, except for a few times when the U.S. National Team played in Nebraska, that she got to play at home after a 15-year pro career.
"I was almost in tears driving to practice in my own car and I get to go to my own house. It's just so surreal," Jordan said. "I wish I could put it in better words, because it's a dream come true for my family to be here and to experience this."
Candelaria Herrera added eight kills, an ace, four blocks and three digs. Setters Gabby Blossom and Laura Dijkema, who had 17 digs, combined for 51 assists as their team hit .250. Another Nebraska product, Olympic libero Justine Wong-Orantes, had 12 digs and two assists as Omaha improved to 3-0 and remained the only unbeaten team in League One Volleyball.
"When it mattered, we just counted on each other to make a play," Omaha coach Suzie Fritz said. "And I think they found another level at the end of that match. We were really good. It was a beautiful thing to watch."
LOVB Madison, which dropped to 1-3, got 16 kills from Temi Thomas-Ailara, who hit .314 and had a block and 15 digs.
"We let the moment get too big," Temi said. "We know we can prove ourselves in those moments and we can be more consistent, but we might have let the moment get a little too big for us."
Sarah Franklin had just one kill in the first set but finished with 13, a block, nine digs and an assist. Claire Chaussee had 11 kills and five digs. Taylor Sandbothe had six kills, two aces, a block and two digs, and the other middle, Anna Hall, had four kills, an ace, four blocks and three assists. Libero Simin Wang had 18 digs and Olympic setter Lauren Carlini had 17 to go with 43 assists, a kill and a block. Her team hit .226.
LOVB Madison had a 19-18 first-set lead before Omaha took over and finished the set on a 7-1 run, capped by a kill by Winters.
In the second, Madison took a 4-3 lead and never trailed. They did have a 23-20 advantage, however, before Omaha came back again, pulling to 23-22 on a pair of Madison errors. The set was tied at 24 when Drewniok appeared to get a kill on a back-row attack, but Madison challenged successfully that its block did not touch the ball. Sandbothe's subsequent ace tied the match at a set apiece.
A late surge lifted Omaha again in the third. After Chaussee got a kill to pull Madison within one at 19-18, Omaha finished the set on a 6-0 run that included four blocks: two by Drewniok and one each by Herrera and Larson. Omaha finished the match with a 12-8 blocks advantage.
Madison again took an early lead in the fourth and led 19-14 before Omaha turned it on again. This time the home team ended on an 8-4 run that included breaking a 23-23 tie on a kill by Winters. The match ended when Wang couldn't handle Drewniok's serve and middle Emily Thater pounced on the over pass for her fourth kill of the match. She added an ace, two blocks and a dig.
"It was not our cleanest match. But one of the challenges you have when you play a good team – and we're going to have to do it again tomorrow and we're going to have to do it every weekend – is the ability to play ugly well and do hard well," Fritz said.
Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth visited a LOVB Omaha practice this week. Nebraska coach John Cook and Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly – who coached Chaussee – were at the match.
"Hats off to Omaha. They're just playing solid volleyball right now and they make you work," Madison coach Matt Feurbringer said. "Right now we're a good volleyball team till 20, but we get in the red zone and we're not finishing the way we could have.
"We're disappointed in that but we're learning, we're getting better and I'm excited to get out there tomorrow."
LOVB action continues Saturday with a twinbill. First up at 4:30 p.m. Central, LOVB Atlanta plays LOVB Madison, followed by LOVB Austin vs. LOVB Omaha at 7 p.m. Both matches can be seen on LOVB Live and via the Women’s Sports Network on Samsung TV Plus.
