CEDAR PARK, Texas – LOVB Austin had a new coach.
LOVB Houston had a new look.
LOVB Austin had Madisen Skinner, who played as well as always and led her team to a 25-20, 19-25, 25-18, 26-24 victory Wednesday as she pummeled Houston with 23 kills to go with an ace, two blocks, 13 digs and an assist.
Match Stats | Video Recap | LOVB Houston Roster | LOVB Austin Roster
Austin was playing its first match under interim head coach Chris McGown, who was a last-minute replacement for Marco Bonitta. Bonitta, who guided the team to a third-place finish in last weekend's LOVB Classic in Kansas City, left for personal reasons. McGown joined the squad Wednesday.
"I was really, really pleased," McGown said. "It's almost been a surreal experience for me. I showed up and the first time we met each other was an hour before the match and I threw together a quick game plan. The biggest message was go play really hard, lean on each other and bring great energy and compete as hard as you can.
"I thought the team was great. They did a really good job. They were calm, they were collected and played hard the whole night. It's really fun to be a part of this and I feel lucky to be in this position."
He said in his post-match news conference that he was contacted by LOVB about taking the job this past Friday. Logan Eggleston said the team was told about the change this past weekend during the Classic.
"We're excited for a new chapter," Logan said. "This is going to be a really exciting last half of the season. We're really grateful for everything Marco did for our team and we're really excited to go for it and continue to improve at volleyball."
Houston coach Massimo Barbolini rested most of his starters since both teams are back at it Thursday when they play their fifth matches in seven days. His team, of course, was coming off a victory in the LOVB Classic when it won three matches in three days.
Houston opens a doubleheader in the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park against LOVB Omaha at 4:30 p.m. Central Thursday, followed by Austin vs. LOVB Salt Lake at 7 p.m. Central. Both matches can be seen on LOVB Live, DAZN and the LOVB YouTube channel.
Eggleston had 16 kills for Austin to go with an ace, two blocks, five digs and two assists. Fellow outside Anna Haak, had six kills, two blocks and 12 digs.
"This is definitely a confidence builder for us," Logan said.
Asjia O'Neal had five kills, a block and a dig, and Molly McCage added four kills, four blocks, a dig and two assists.
Setter Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres had 48 assists, two kills in four errorless tries, a block and 16 digs, and libero Zoe Jarvis had 14 digs and two assists.
Austin improved to 3-4 in the regular season while Houston dropped to 4-3. Austin hit .230 and had two aces and 10 serving errors. Houston, which hit .160, had five aces and five errors. Both teams had 14 blocks.
"I want to congratulate my team. I'm not happy with the result, but I'm really happy about how we played because tonight I made the choice to go with players who usually don't play at all," Houston coach Barbolini said. "The players who play more needed rest after the three days in Kansas City."
Houston got 10 kills apiece from middle Amber Igiede, who hit .350 and had five blocks and six digs, and Grace Frohling, who got the start at opposite so Jordan Thompson could take the night off. Igiede was the player of the match when Houston beat Atlanta in the LOVB Classic final.
Jess Mruzik, who played in the fourth set, gave Houston a spark with eight kills and 11 digs. Two others got into the lineup early as Sara Loda had seven kills, a block and 17 digs, and Karin Palgutova had five kills, two aces, a block and four digs. Julia Brown also got playing time and finished with five kills in 10 errorless attacks. And one of her kills was something else: With her team up 22-14 in the second set, she attacked from the left side and was rejected by McCage, but the ball came back quickly, hit Brown on the forehead, and went back across for an untouched kill.
Christina Bauer, another getting more than normal playing time, had three kills, three aces, three blocks and an assist. Key Alves got her first start at libero and had eight digs and four assists. And Kaisa Alanko, who filled in for Micha Hancock in the LOVB Classic opener, set again and not only had 42 assists but two kills, a block and 11 digs.
"We showed that we have two teams, because we have players who sometimes don't play that much but tonight they did a good job," Barbolini said.
Houston had won the previous two matchups between the Lone Star clubs, winning a reverse sweep to open the season January 9 in Houston and beating Austin in four sets February 5 in Austin.
