WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah -- Tessa Grubbs and LOVB Atlanta completely dominated the sets they won Friday night in a 25-20, 23-25, 25-18, 25-18 victory at LOVB Salt Lake.
And she was the star. The opposite had 23 kills, six more than her previous League One Volleyball best, and hit .529.
Match Stats | LOVB Atlanta Roster | LOVB Salt Lake Roster
First-place Atlanta (5-1) won its fifth match in a row by owning every stat, especially from the service line, where it had a whopping 10 aces and 12 serving errors. Conversely, Salt Lake had just one ace and 10 errors.
"We did not start well, but we improved," said Atlanta head coach Paulo Coco. "We showed more consistency during the game. Our sideout system is getting better, our point scoring system also. We had a good serve today, caused some problems in the Salt Lake reception, and we made points in transition."
Tessa, named player of the match, was particularly lethal late in sets. She had a block and two of her kills after 20 points in the first set. Even in the second set – which her team lost – she had three kills after 19 points. By the end of the second set, she already had 11 kills with just two errors in 16 attacks.
In the third set, she had kills to score Atlanta's final three points. Tessa finished with five errors in 34 swings and added two blocks and three digs.
Outside Gia Day had 13 kills, four aces and nine digs. Kelsey Cook, whose kill ended the match, had 13 kills with just one error in 25 attacks to hit .480 and added a block, 15 digs and an assist. Middle Tia Jimerson had six kills, two blocks and two digs, and Kayla Haneline had three kills, two aces and three digs.
Setter Rachel Fairbanks had a kill in two errorless tries, three aces, six digs and 48 assists. The other setter, Madi Bugg, had six assists, an ace and three digs. Their team hit .303 as Atlanta improved to 2-1 against Salt Lake this year.
"We had so many options for Rachel to choose, and she was making great decisions," Tessa said after the match. "Even our out-of-system setting was really good. It opened a lot of doors for everyone because our fourth set, our outside hitters were on fire as well. When our serve receive was on, we were firing."
LOVB Salt Lake dropped to 3-4 overall as it hit .223 on the night. Atlanta had 60 kills against Salt Lake's 41, and Atlanta held a 9-6 blocks advantage.
Opposite Skylar Fields led Salt Lake with 11 kills and four digs. Outside hitter Dani Drews had eight kills, a block and five digs.
Middle Haleigh Washington had six kills, three blocks and two digs and counterpart Tori Dixon had five kills with one error in 12 attacks, a block and a dig.
Setter Jordyn Poulter, who had her team's only ace, had a kill in her only attempt, a block, two digs and 30 assists. Tamaki Matsui had eight assists, a kill and a dig.
Atlanta came back from a 9-8 first-set deficit with a 7-2 run that included two kills by Grubbs.
Salt Lake broke a 23-23 second-tie with a kill by Dani and won the set on an Atlanta ballhandling error.
"We talked about us needing to put the pressure on," Tessa said. "We let things slip up a little bit but we were able to turn it around."
That's for sure. Tessa had nine of her kills in the third set with just one error in 12 attacks. A 7-0 run that made it 15-7 included four of her kills and a block.
Atlanta took the lead for good at 13-12 in the fourth.
"Atlanta deserves respect for their performance," Tama Miyashiro, LOVB Salt Lake head coach said. "We tried to find some solutions, but they didn’t come fast enough. I have faith in our squad to rebound and find energy for tomorrow."
Neither team gets time to rest, because the fifth week of the inaugural season concludes Saturday with a doubleheader. LOVB Madison faces LOVB Atlanta at 4:30 p.m. Mountain, followed by a 7 p.m. Mountain first serve between LOVB Omaha vs. LOVB Salt Lake. Both matches can be seen on LOVB Live, YouTube and the Women's Sports Network via Samsung TV Plus.
