Efficient LOVB Omaha Downs LOVB Madison in Four

MADISON, Wisconsin (January 18, 2025) – Things are better than just all right for Lauren Stivrins, the former All-American Nebraska middle.

And they're pretty good for her LOVB Omaha team, which hit .410 and came away with a 20-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-15 victory over LOVB Madison on Saturday night in the Wisconsin Field House.

Video Recap | Match Stats | LOVB Madison Roster | LOVB Omaha Roster

LOVB Omaha, at 2-0, is the only unbeaten team left in League One Volleyball after just two weeks of the inaugural season.

Stivrins, who never had played on the right side until this season, had 14 kills with no errors in 20 attacks to hit .700. She added two blocks and three digs.

"I love hitting off one foot," Lauren said, "so it just seems like a natural progression."

The other right side, German Kimberly Drewniok, led Omaha with 19 kills, eight in the first set. She hit .531 with just two errors in 32 swings and added five digs. 

Omaha got good production from the middles, too. Emily Thater went 12-for-25 with no errors to hit .480, also notching two blocks, an ace and a dig. And Candelaria Herrera had seven kills, hitting .375 to go with an ace, a block, a dig and an assist. 

Veteran Jordan Larson had nine kills – all in the last three sets – seven digs, an ace and a block. 

Running a two-setter system, Laura Dijkema and Gabby Blossom set Omaha to 67 kills with seven errors in 146 swings. Laura tallied 31 assists, six digs and two aces, and Gabby added 26 assists and three digs.

Libero Justine Wong-Orantes had 23 digs and an assist.

LOVB Madison, which defeated Salt Lake in a tough five-set match 24 hours earlier, dropped to 1-2. Playing on her college court, recent Wisconsin alumna Sarah Franklin led Madison offensively with 19 kills, a .421 attack efficiency, six digs and one ace, block and assist apiece. 

Fellow former Badger Temi Thomas-Ailara had 13 kills, a block and seven digs. Ana Beatriz Correa had six kills, a block and four digs, and Taylor Sandbothe had six kills, a block and six digs.

Setter Lauren Carlini had 45 assists, 13 digs and an ace. Her team hit .283. Libero Simin Wang had 15 digs.

Madison seemed poised for another victory after controlling the first set, but Omaha rallied late, closing the gap from being down 20-11 to losing 25-20. 

“From where they were last weekend to what we got today, Madison is doing a nice job,” LOVB Omaha head coach Suzie Fritz said. “They were a handful. It was a slow start for us, not fully who we’re capable of being, but we found ourselves later. It felt good towards the end.”

Madison, trailing by as many as four before closing the gap, had its second-set chances, especially after a kill by Thomas-Ailara made it 24-24. But Omaha tied the match one set apiece on back-to-back Madison hitting errors.

“We lost control and stopped playing the game we can play,” LOVB Madison head coach Matt Fuerbringer said after the match, “but  [Omaha] had a lot to do with that. Credit for them, but also a lot of stuff for us to learn.”

Drewniok had six more kills in the third set as Omaha dominated. In the fourth, Omaha's lead was 10-9 before it went on a 7-2 run.

In less than a week, these teams will have a rematch, this time on LOVB Omaha’s home floor for their First Serve. That contest takes place Friday, January 24 at 7 p.m. Central as the beginning of Omaha’s first Weekend with LOVB. Madison will take on Atlanta the next day in a neutral-site match, and Omaha will face LOVB Austin a few hours later.