KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Jordan Thompson and LOVB Houston swept LOVB Madison before Logan Eggleston and LOVB Austin battled to a four-set victory over LOVB Salt Lake on Friday in the first round of the inaugural LOVB Classic.
Saturday's semifinals are set:
No. 3 Houston plays second-seeded LOVB Omaha at 4:30 p.m. Central and No. 5 Austin plays top-seeded LOVB Atlanta at 7. Both matches can be seen on ESPN+.
Madison and Salt Lake now get a day off before playing each other on Sunday in the first match of a triple-header.
Setter Kaisa Alanko leads Houston victory
With starter Micha Hancock, the two-time Olympian, sidelined, Finnish setter Kaisa Alanko did more than just fill in for third-seeded LOVB Houston.
Match Stats | Video Recap | LOVB Madison Roster | LOVB Houston Roster
"She came in without us skipping a beat and we were pretty seamless in the transition," opposite Jordan Thompson said.
Kaisa was named player of the match after getting 28 assists in Houston's 25-20, 25-23, 25-18 victory over No. 6 LOVB Madison.
"I was so nervous," Kaisa said with a laugh. "But I had help from the team. Everyone knew the situation and helped me. As the game went on I got more relaxed."
Kaisa, who had a total of 52 assists and 14 digs in Houston's first six matches, finished with six digs and her team hit .304.
"Obviously it's tough when anybody gets hurt, but I had no doubt in my mind. Kaisa is always so solid in practice and when we do 'dub sub' and she comes in she's just such a consistent player," said Thompson, who led Houston with 18 kills while hitting .421 to go with four digs and two blocks. "I think it's really easy to hit off of her and her defense is amazing, too."
Houston got 10 kills apiece from Madi Rishel, who had 10 digs, two aces and an assist, and Jess Mruzik, who had two blocks, eight digs and an assist. Libero Anna Pogany was outstanding as she had 15 digs and four assists.
"In the third set my players were really good to maintain the advantage," Houston coach Massimo Barbolini said. "And it's important that we closed 3-0 because tomorrow will be another big challenge against Omaha,"
After the loss, Olympic teammates Lauren Carlini and Annie Drews-Schumacher spoke frankly about LOVB Madison’s recent stretch.
"Through hard times what can you control? You can control your work ethic, you can control your energy and how you go about things every day in the gym," Lauren said. "Today we were going to compete hard and have contagious positive energy and honestly I thought that was better than the previous weeks. In that sense I'm actually really proud of what we showed in terms of resilience."
Her team hit .229 against Houston as Lauren had 32 assists, 11 digs and a kill.
Jennifer Janiska led with 10 kills, a block and 11 digs. Annie had seven kills, a block and four digs.
Sarah Franklin had seven kills and nine digs. Anna Hall had six kills, an ace and a block and Taylor Sandbothe had four kills, two blocks and a dig.
The first set was tied 14-14 before Houston pulled away.
In the second set, it was tied at 23 when two Madison errors gave Houston the frame.
"In that second set, we both made errors that cost us," Annie said, nodding at Lauren in the post-match news conference. "But there were probably four or five plays throughout that cost us, as well. How can we problem-solve sooner?"
The match also marked the first time LOVB used the Super Point, and it came with mixed results. That last was called by Madison coach Matt Feurbringer with his team trailing 14-10. Houston's Raphaela Folie made them pay with an ace that made it 16-10.
"I went a little too aggressive in that third set," Madison coach Matt Fuerbringer admitted.
Feurbringer has dealt with an inordinate amount of injuries, travel woes, and "we've had a lot of starting lineups out there."
The injuries are taking their toll and so is the losing streak.
"Our team is being challenged in a lot of ways right now and we're going to have to keep working hard. It's the only thing we know how to do," Feurbringer said.
"We did some things that we worked on this week. We did better. We didn't get the result we wanted and but we've just got to keep pecking away and working hard.
"This is the part of our story – I told the ladies – that the next chapter is going to be the comeback and the turnaround. We just have to keep working and fighting."
Eggleston leads Austin past Salt Lake
Fifth-seeded Austin reached the LOVB Classic semifinals with its 26-24, 25-14, 19-25, 25-22 victory over No. 4 Salt Lake.
"We are really satisfied today, not only with the victory but the way we won this match," Austin coach Marco Bonitta said. "We played so good the first set, with great energy and strategy.
"We won the second set so good. We lost some energy and focus in the third set, but we came back so good in the fourth set."
Match Stats | Video Recap | LOVB Austin Roster | LOVB Salt Lake Roster
Logan Eggleston overpowered Salt Lake with 17 kills – five in the fourth set – while hitting .324. She added an ace, two blocks and six digs. Madisen Skinner had 12 kills, a block, two digs and one assist. Chiaka Ogbogu had nine kills with one error in 13 attacks to hit .615 and had two blocks and four digs. Anna Haak had eight kills, including a blast to end the match, to go with an ace, a block, 12 digs and an assist. Asjia O'Neal had seven kills with one error in 11 swings to hit .545 and had an assist, two digs, two blocks and a match-high three aces. Her team had six aces with 11 errors, while Salt Lake had two aces with 12 errors.
Austin, which hit .308, saw setter Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torrres get 37 assists to go with two kills, two blocks and eight digs. Carli Lloyd added 11 assists and three digs and libero Zoe Jarvis had 14 digs and five assists.
Roni Jones-Perry and Maddie Haynes had 10 kills each for Salt Lake. Roni had a block and three digs, while Maddie had no errors in 12 attacks to hit .833 in her best Salt Lake outing while adding a block and five digs.
Heidy Casanova had eight kills, an ace, a block and seven digs, and Dani Drews had seven kills and a dig.
Salt Lake hit .248 as setter Jordyn Poulter had 46 assists, eight digs, a kill and a block.
"For sure this one's tough," Salt Lake coach Tama Miyashiro said. "Not the highest level of volleyball but we had some glimpses of great volleyball. We will continue to work to try to bring our best every match and I applaud my crew for sticking with it and grinding it out."
