TAYLORSVILLE, Utah – The showdown turned out to be a Houston throw down.
LOVB Houston players joined together and bounced with glee at Bruin Arena Saturday after sweeping LOVB Madison in a dominating performance that gave the winners the No. 2 seed in next week's LOVB Finals.
Houston (10-6) not only snapped Madison's remarkable seven-match winning streak, it gained a quarterfinal bye into the Finals semifinals in Louisville.
Madison (8-8) ended up with the No. 3 seed and will play sixth-seeded Omaha in the quarterfinals Thursday.
In the nightcap that put a bow on the inaugural League One Volleyball regular season, LOVB Salt Lake (7-9) came back from a 12-8 fifth-set deficit to defeat LOVB Austin (5-11). As it turned out, it was a preview of the other quarterfinal. No matter how the match ended, the same teams would play each other again as the No. 4 vs. the No. 5 on Thursday.
Houston, which overwhelmed Madison in almost every possible way in its 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 victory, hit .385 to Madison's .153, and had a whopping 13-2 blocks advantage, five by middle Rafaela Folie.
Houston vs. Madison stats | LOVB Houston roster | LOVB Madison roster
Setter Micha Hancock was masterful, not only having 36 assists, but two kills, an ace, two blocks and four digs.
Her teammates, she said, "were riled up. We wanted the bye, so we were ready to take it to 'em and we swept for the first time in a while."
True: The last Houston sweep came February 20 against Omaha.
Jordan Thompson continued to carry Houston on offense, this time with 17 kills. She has had 13 or more kills in each of the last 10 matches she's played. The two-time Olympic medalist hit .378 and had two blocks, six digs and an assist.
"We've worked hard all season and to be honest I think we deserve to be second," she said. "And I think we wanted to prove that today."
The two outsides were stellar: Madi Kingdon Rishel had eight kills, hit .350, and had seven digs and two assists. Jess Mruzik, who had an ace, a block and five digs, added seven kills and hit .316.
Folie had five kills with one error in nine attacks to hit .444 to go with an ace and two digs. Her five blocks matched her season best. Fellow middle Amber Igiede had five kills in eight errorless swings, three blocks and three digs.
"I really want to congratulate the team," Houston coach Massimo Barbolini said. "I think they played one of the best matches we played in the last month."
He noted that his team, which won three matches in three days as the No. 3 seed in the midseason LOVB Classic, welcomed the bye and the extra day off.
"Kudos to Houston. They just outplayed us," said Madison coach Matt Fuerbringer, whose team was coming off a four-set victory Friday over Salt Lake. "They outplayed us in every part of the game and they showed us why they've been where they are all year."
Houston improved to 3-1 against Madison this season.
"Of course you want to win and of course you want a bye, but it's also good to be exposed a little bit and see what other teams are going to exploit. It's going to be great to learn from this and come out even stronger," Madison setter Lauren Carlini said.
"I think we still have a good sense of momentum, our team is doing really good going into this last week of the season."
Annie Drews Schumacher led Madison with 13 kills and had five digs. Sarah Franklin had nine kills, hit .333 and Claire Chaussee had six kills and eight digs. Carlini had kills in her two attempts, three digs and 31 assists.
Salt Lake staged a tremendous fifth-set rally to win 18-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-17, 15-13 in a match in which there was a lot of friendly banter between both teams. Both coaches played every available player and shuffled lineups throughout.
Austin at Salt Lake stats | LOVB Austin roster | LOVB Salt Lake roster
Salt Lake, which hit .267, had seven aces and seven blocks. Austin, which lost its fourth in a row, had a higher hitting percentage (.292) and a huge advantage in blocks with 18, six each by Molly McCage and Chiaka Ogbogu.
Heidy Casanova led Salt Lake with 17 kills and had an ace, a block and nine digs. Claire Hoffman, who hit the match-ending kill, finished with 12, an ace, two blocks, eight digs and an assist.
"There were a lot of good moments," Claire said.
Haleigh Washington had 11 kills with two errors in 21 attacks to hit .429 and had an ace, two blocks and two digs.
"All season we've been trying to find that rhythm and find that groove and tonight was just about scrapping and having a lot of fun, putting it all out there and swinging in big moments," Haleigh said.
Roni Jones-Perry added eight kills, all in the last two sets, and Skylar Fields had eight kills as well, hitting .467. Roni served especially well in the late rally, keeping Austin out of system for six points in a row that included an ace.
Starting setter Jordyn Poulter had 23 assists and her replacement, Tamaki Matsui had 33 as Salt Lake evened its record against Austin to 2-2 this season.
"It was just so fun," Salt Lake coach Tama Miyashiro said. "I'm just glad that we were able to keep re-setting in the fifth set."
Madisen Skinner led Austin with 18 kills and hit .350. She had two aces, two blocks and two digs. Logan Eggleston had 11 kills and six digs and Molly McCage had seven kills, an ace and two digs to go with those six blocks, her second-highest total this season.
Anna Haak had six kills, an ace, a block and six digs, and Chiaka Ogbogu had five kills, an assist and five digs to go with her five blocks. She now leads LOVB with 53, one ahead of LOVB Atlanta's Tia Jimerson.
"Serve receive let us down again, and the moments when we needed to be fearless, we were playing a little bit afraid. That was the disappointing part for me,"Austin coach Chris McGown said.
Austin fell to 1-5 in five-set matches.
"Salt Lake, they're banged up, you could tell, they were playing all these funny lineups with different people coming in and out," Chris continued. "They got great production out of Casanova. She absolutely lit us up. They passed pretty well, actually, in times when they needed to. Congratulations to them for making a huge comeback. 12-8 is a lot in the fifth and they served their way out of it.
"We'll see them again soon and try and learn as much as we can from this match and be a little braver when we play them again Thursday."
