OMAHA, Nebraska – LOVB Omaha was so close to snapping its streak.
But LOVB Austin rallied from a 14-12 fifth-set deficit, fought off two more match points, and came away with a 24-26, 25-20, 25-15, 23-25, 18-16 victory Friday night.
Match stats | LOVB Austin roster | LOVB Omaha roster
Austin improved to 5-7 as it broke a three-match skid and pulled to a game back of third-place LOVB Madison. Omaha dropped to 4-8.
Saturday's doubleheader is back in Baxter Arena when first-place LOVB Atlanta plays Austin at 4:30 p.m. Central, followed by second-place LOVB Houston vs. Omaha at 7 p.m. Both matches can be seen on LOVB Live, the Women's Sports Network via Samsung TV Plus, and YouTube.
Austin's Khat Bell, who entered the match with a total of 12 kills this season, erupted for 17 and hit .306. Seven of her kills came in the fifth set alone. She added two blocks, seven digs and an assist, all season bests.
Logan Eggleston had 16 kills, hit .333, and had an ace, three blocks and eight digs. Chiaka Ogbogu finished with 14 kills and hit .524 with just three errors in 21 attacks. She also had a match-high nine blocks, an ace, two digs and an assist.
"There are things that don't show up on a stat sheet. Tonight was a testament to that. I truly think we would not have won that match without Khat,” Chiaka said. “The things she was saying, how she was talking, really believing in us and feeding people energy, getting in our faces when we needed to be held accountable, those are the kind of things you don't necessarily see but you feel and it helps you play your game."
Setter Carli Lloyd had a season-best five blocks, 53 assists, 10 digs, and two kills. Her team hit .255. Libero Zoe Jarvis had 15 digs and two assists.
Austin, 3-0 against Omaha, had 20 blocks to Omaha's 11.
The first set was tied 24-24 when Jaali Winters had a kill and newly signed middle Sami Francis ended a long rally with a kill.
Austin had 15 kills with five errors on 31 swings in the second set, one in which it rallied from a 13-10 deficit with an 8-2 run and never looked back.
Austin was even sharper as it dominated the third set as Bell got five of her kills with no errors in eight attacks. Omaha rallied to win the fourth, forcing a fifth-set tiebreak.
In the fifth, Jordan Larson gave Omaha match point with a left-handed poke that made it through for a 14-12 lead. Austin tied it at 14, Omaha had leads of 15-14 and 16-15, but a kill off a slide by Ogbogu tied it and a back-to-back block by Eggleston and Ogbogu ended it.
"It felt good to end on that note," Chiaka said.
"Those are the kind of matches you live for as a player," Austin coach Chris McGown said.
Omaha has lost eight in a row, which started with two losses in the LOVB Classic and six in the regular season.
"When you're playing a team as physical as Austin we have to be able to do what we do well, which is as a general rule take care of the ball. And that got away from us," Omaha coach Suzie Fritz said.
Emily Thater led with 14 kills and hit .522 after having two errors in 23 attacks.
"A really impressive match by Emily Thater in all areas," Fritz said.
Francis, the former Stanford star who is still in school, made a big splash in her pro debut after just two days of practice with eight kills, an ace, six blocks and a dig.
She was "a difference maker at the net," her coach said.
And she filled a big void.
Two other Omaha middles are out. Candelaria Herrera is lost for the season and "we've got a big TBD," with Lauren Stivrins, the coach said in the post-match news conference.
Sami, 6-6, admitted that she took three months off after the college season and hadn’t touched a volleyball until last week.
'This is an amazing opportunity for me and I'm so happy to be here," said Sami, who was sixth last season in the NCAA in blocks and 20th in hitting percentage. She plans to head back to Stanford on Sunday for exams next week before rejoining her LOVB team.
Outsides Vicky Savard and Madi Kubik-Banks had 10 kills each. Jordan Larson, who did not start and didn't play front row until the fourth set, ended up with seven kills and five digs.
Omaha hit .121. Setter Laura Dijkema had two kills in four errorless tries, an ace, a block, nine digs and 48 assists. Libero Justine Wong-Orantes had 13 digs and four assists.
