ATLANTA – There have been three reverse sweeps in this inaugural League One Volleyball season and LOVB Houston has done it twice.
Its second came, Friday night in Gateway Center Arena Houston stunned LOVB Atlanta 21-25, 18-25, 25-21, 25-17, 15-10, and narrowed Atlanta's lead atop the standings to two games.
Match stats | LOVB Houston roster | LOVB Atlanta roster
Houston (6-4) opened its LOVB season with a reverse sweep on January 9 against Austin. The other unlikely LOVB comeback from being down two sets to none happened just last Saturday when Atlanta accomplished it against Omaha.
Atlanta (8-2) had won eight regular-season matches in a row. But it went 1-1 in last month's LOVB Classic, losing in four sets to Houston in the title match.
"It was not easy to be zero-two against the first team in the rankings," Houston coach Massimo Barbolini said.
"We fought for every ball and it was a good point for us in the rankings. Now we have two or three hours to celebrate and then we have to think about the next match."
And that is Saturday afternoon, just more than 18 hours after the end of Friday's match, when Houston plays LOVB Madison at 4:30 p.m. Eastern. At 7 p.m. Atlanta plays LOVB Austin. Both matches can be seen on LOVB Live, the Women's Sports Network via Samsung TV Plus, and YouTube.
"Tomorrow we must play better if we want to win against Madison," Massimo said.
Friday night Atlanta broke a 16-16-first-set tie with a four-point run and wasn’t challenged again. In the second set, Atlanta again broke away, snapping a 17-17 with an 8-1 run.
But then Houston turned it around.
"We could have made adjustments sooner," Amber Igiede admitted.
"One we made those adjustments in the third that was the difference maker," Jess Mruzik said.
The third set was tied 17-17 before Houston took the lead, but it didn’t pull away until up 20-19. Houston more or less controlled each of the last two sets.
Jess led Houston with 16 kills and added an ace and three digs. Jordan Thompson had 13 kills, two aces, four blocks and 13 digs. Madi Kingdon Rishel had 11 kills and 19 digs.
Amber, at her best late in the match, had 10 kills and hit .412 to go with five blocks and three digs. Fellow middle Raphael Folie had five kills in nine errorless swings and added five blocks and a dig.
Setter Micha Hancock not only had 46 assists, but five kills with one error in nine tries, an ace, two blocks and 15 digs. Libero Anna Pogany had 11 digs and six assists.
Houston hit .217 as the hitting percentages for both teams declined throughout the match. Houston had four aces and nine serving errors. Both teams were tough at the net as Atlanta had 18 blocks and Houston 16.
Atlanta hit .188 after starting out at .500 in the first set. McKenzie Adams led with 17 kills, 15 in the first three sets, to go with a block, eight digs and an assist. Kelsey Cook had 15 kills, 19 digs and an assist. Danielle Cuttino had 11 kills, an ace, five blocks and 10 digs.
"We got really comfortable after the first two sets and backed off," Kelsey said. "Then I think it got messy. We weren't clear in how we were communicating and decision-making and calling the ball. Once that happens, it has a spiral effect."
Magda Jehlarova hit .400 with eight kills, an ace, three blocks, a dig and two assists, and Tia Jimerson had five kills, six blocks and two digs.
Atlanta was without starting setter Rachel Fairbanks, so Madi Bugg went the distance and had season-bests of 48 assists, two kills in four errorless tries and three blocks. She added an ace and 15 digs.
"We lost a little bit of clarity in the third set and started to make more mistakes," Atlanta coach Paulo Coco said. "We couldn't find a solution to get back into the match."
