ATLANTA – LOVB Madison got closer to snapping the skid.
But in the end, LOVB Atlanta bounced back in its own way with a 25-15, 25-21, 23-25, 23-25, 15-7 victory.
Atlanta, which opened the season with a loss but then reeled off six victories in a row, was coming off a loss in last weekend's LOVB Classic, its first in six weeks.
Match Stats | LOVB Madison Roster | LOVB Atlanta Roster
For the first two sets Friday in the Gateway Center Arena, Atlanta was in control. But Madison, which was 1-6 before the Classic and lost both its matches in Kansas City, came alive.
In the third set, Claire Chaussee got in the match and gave her team a spark. That set was tied 15-15 before Madison went on a 3-0 run – all on kills by Chaussee – and never trailed again. Annie Drews Schumacher ended the set with a roll-shot kill.
In the fourth, Annie got five of her team-high 19 kills, including the one that ended that set. Neither team had separation, but after it was tied 22-22, Annie had a kill, the lead went to 24-22 on an Atlanta hitting error, and after a kill by Kelsey Cook, Annie blasted a ball from the right side.
In the fifth, Atlanta bolted to a 5-2 lead and never led by less than three points the rest of the way. Atlanta coach Paulo Coco won two challenges in the fifth and opposite Danielle Cuttino had three of her match-high 21 kills.
"Winning is always good," Coco said. "We did well in the first set and played consistent, but after that we lost a little bit of our intensity. We started to make some mistakes in the second and they improved a little bit. In the third, we had some choices that were not the best and we repeated that in the fourth set.
"In the fifth set we came back and played with more intensity and better serving and block defense."
Danielle, the player of the match who had kills from the right, left and back row, hit .364 and had three blocks, 10 digs and two assists.
"Every game that we play is going to be super challenging, and Madison played a really good game," Danielle said. "We just had to dig deep and keep staying aggressive until the end."
Tia Jimerson had 12 kills and hit .476 after having two errors in 21 attacks to go with four blocks and three digs.
McKenzie Adams had five of her 14 kills in the second set and added two aces, 10 digs and an assist. Madga Jehlarova had 10 kills with no errors in 18 attacks to hit .556, a fifth-set ace, three blocks and five digs. Cook had 11 kills, hit .321, and had two aces and 14 digs.
Setter Rachel Fairbanks had two kills in four errorless tries, an ace, 18 digs and 48 assists. Her team hit .360. Libero Piyanut Pannoy had 14 digs and seven assists and the other setter, Madi Bugg, had seven assists and a dig.
Madison hit .242 and had three aces and 11 errors. Drews Schumacher had just two errors in 47 attacks to hit .362 and had an ace and seven digs. Sarah Franklin had 14 kills and 14 digs, and Chaussee finished with 10 kills and one block. Ana Beatriz Correa had seven kills in 12 errorless attacks, a dig and an ace. Anna Hall had six kills and hit .400.
Setter Lauren Carlini had 51 assists, two kills in seven errorless attempts, two aces and 17 digs.
"I was really happy with how we responded in sets three and four," Madison coach Matt Feurbringer said. "We put together some nice runs and did some things we hadn't done in a long time, so that was great to see. We're just going to have to maintain that a little longer.
"In the third and fourth sets we really picked up our serving and that's really key for us."
The next League One Volleyball match is Thursday, February 27, when LOVB Salt Lake goes to LOVB Houston. LOVB Omaha plays at Madison on Friday, February 28, and then Atlanta plays Omaha and LOVB Austin plays Madison Saturday, March 1.
"We've just got to build on this week and take the good stuff from it and just work and get better," Feurbringer said.
