No. 1 vs. No. 2. Again.
This time, league-leading LOVB Atlanta can clinch the top seed in next month's LOVB Finals with a victory Thursday, March 27, at second-place LOVB Houston. The showdown in the Fort Bend County Epicenter starts at 7 p.m. Central and can be seen on LOVB Live, DAZN and the LOVB YouTube channel.
"It's always a battle when we play against them," Houston veteran outside hitter Madi Kingdon Rishel said. "They're a great team and run a really fast offense, which is a little different than ours and that's always a challenge for us."
The first time they played was in the LOVB Classic title match and Houston won in four. Three weeks ago in Atlanta, Houston pulled off a reverse sweep. And on March 14 at Houston, Houston won in five again.
"It's always a dogfight," Madi said. "We've played them three times and they've all been such a battle."
The top two teams in the six-team standings get byes into the LOVB Finals semifinals. Atlanta is assured of one of those spots. Houston can clinch the other with a victory and would also stay in contention for the No. 1 seed. But Madison, which has won five matches in a row, can still catch Houston. Here's how they stand heading into Week 12:
- LOVB Atlanta (11-3)
- LOVB Houston (9-5)
- LOVB Madison (6-7)
- LOVB Austin (5-8)
- LOVB Salt Lake (5-8)
- LOVB Omaha (4-9)
The action moves 145 miles west on Friday, where LOVB Omaha plays host LOVB Austin at Texas State University in San Marcos. That 7 p.m Central start is on ESPN+. Then in a doubleheader Saturday, LOVB Salt Lake plays Omaha at 6 p.m. on ESPN+, followed by LOVB Madison vs. Austin at 9 p.m. Central on ESPN2 and ESPN+.
Madison can catch Houston by winning its last three matches and if Houston loses its last two. They play on Saturday, April 5.
And clearly the race between Austin, Salt Lake and Omaha is up for grabs as all three battle with Madison for the No. 3 seed.
"You never know what's going to happen each night," Kingdon Rishel offered.
In their last meeting, it appeared that Atlanta was going to pull off a reverse sweep before Houston came away with a 25-23, 25-23, 15-25, 19-25, 15-8 victory. Jess Mruzik led Houston with 15 kills and Jordan Thompson had 13. Madi had 11 kills and a match-high 17 digs.
Atlanta's Danielle Cuttino had 24 kills in that match, at the time the second most in a match by any player. McKenzie Adams had 17 kills.
"They're on top for a reason," Madi continued. "They're really solid. They're great in serve receive, so you have to bring your best serving game against them. And they just run the crap out of their offense. It's fast and you have to play great defense. In every single facet of the game you have to be on against them."
Conversely, Atlanta obviously has its challenges against Houston.
"Our team is strong in a lot of areas. We're a good serving team and Micha really elevates that," Madi said. Indeed, because setter Micha Hancock's high-flying lefty jump serves consistently throws teams out of system and she leads LOVB with 18 aces. Atlanta outside hitter Kelsey Cook is second with 17. For that matter, Atlanta is No. 1 with 86 aces and Houston is second with 57, ahead of Salt Lake's 51.
Houston's Thompson leads in kills with 193. Salt Lake's Roni Jones-Perry is next with 161 and Mruzik is third with 158.
"We have Jordan, who's a great outlet for us, and the addition of Jess was really awesome on the pin. Most days we're passing pretty well and we play a lot of defense. I think we're pretty strong all the way around. There's not one specific thing that's our bread and butter, but I think that's what makes a pretty good team. We're pretty balanced across the board with all the skills."
The match also features the two LOVB digs leaders. Atlanta's Cook leads with 193 and Rishel is second with 187. The next four are liberos.
Weekend with LOVB, hosted by Austin this week, also provides the chance for separation further down in the regular season standings. Just two matches separate Madison, Austin, Salt Lake and Omaha in the standings, and the three matches among those four squads can create plenty of movement. Austin and Omaha play twice and can suddenly leap into third place, and all four can gain valuable head-to-head match wins, which serve as the first tiebreaker to determine LOVB Finals seeding.
The next tiebreakers are head-to-head sets won, then head-to-head points won. If three teams are tied, match winning percentage of all matches amongst all tied teams will be considered, then set winning percentage and point winning percentage if necessary.
