LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – Anna Haak passed the serve perfectly to Carli Lloyd.
The veteran setter went outside to Logan Eggleston, who buried the ball on the LOVB Omaha side of the net.
The celebration was on as LOVB Austin became the first League One Volleyball champion! The players jumped into each others' arms as confetti rained in the KFC Yum! Center.
And the coach?
Chris McGown, who took over the team in midseason, sprinted around the court.
"Unbridled enthusiasm," he said. "I just think it was a release of emotion. A lot of pent-up excitement.
"You work so hard to get to a point where you're playing for a championship of any kind is so rare."
Match stats | LOVB Omaha roster | LOVB Austin roster
In this case, so unlikely that LOVB Austin would win the inaugural LOVB Finals, a 25-19, 25-22, 25-23 victory Sunday that will forever be etched into American volleyball history.
This was a team that, after losing in the midseason LOVB Classic semifinals, lost its coach when Marco Bonitta departed for personal reasons. McGown, the former BYU men's coach and director of Gold Medal Squared, replaced him the next week, on February 19.
Austin won its next two matches but then fell on hard times. A team that was 4-4 finished the regular season 5-11.
But the LOVB Finals meant a new start and fifth-seeded Austin opened with an incredible reverse-sweep victory over fourth-seeded LOVB Salt Lake on Thursday. Then Friday, it scored the upset of the season, knocking out top-seeded LOVB Atlanta, which went 13-3 in the regular season, by pulling off another remarkable reverse sweep.
Sunday, LOVB Austin had the upper hand throughout, although the third set was a battle till the end.
"Give credit to them. I think Chris came in and did a great job with them," Omaha coach Suzie Fritz said. "They found themselves and it's a great story. We were hoping it was ours, but it's a great story."
The two young Texas outsides, Madisen Skinner and Logan Eggleston, played like it was old times.
Logan, star of the 2022 Texas NCAA title team, had 17 kills and hit a whopping .469 after having just two errors in 32 attacks to go with five blocks and three digs.
Madisen continued to light it up, not only in this tournament but in championship matches. She won the 2020 NCAA title with Kentucky, the 2022 and 2023 crowns with Texas, and now has her fourth championship in five years. Against Omaha, she had 17 kills, hit .308 and had four blocks and five digs. It came on the heels of notching 21 kills against Salt Lake and then 25 kills while hitting .364 against Atlanta.
"I thrive under pressure. I don't like feeling the pressure all the time but that brings out the best in me," she admitted with a laugh. "I'm glad that I don't crack. For the most part I'm battle-tested and I'm surrounded by incredible people who are with me every day and they give me the confidence to go out there and swing."
Logan and Madi had 34 of the team's 49 kills.
"We're a pretty deadly combo," Logan said.
"It was a joy to watch them really rise to the moment and still be happy and enjoy it," veteran setter Carli Lloyd said. "It can be hard when you get to these big moments and they just really embraced it and had fun."
Chiaka Ogbogu had six kills, a block and four digs. Molly McCage had four kills in 11 errorless attacks, an ace and two blocks. Haak had three kills with no errors in 10 swings and Lloyd had two kills in three errorless tries.
Lloyd, who got the start and never came out, had 45 assists, three blocks and nine digs as her team hit .360. Austin held a 16-3 advantage in blocks.
"We were prepared for this moment," Carli said. "All the adversity we faced, we just had to trust the work we put in. We were a solid team and that was a solid team win."
Sixth-seeded Omaha's run here to the title match was no less amazing. A team that had lost 11 of 12 upset third-seeded LOVB Madison on Thursday then pulled a shocking reverse sweep on second-seeded LOVB Houston on Friday.
Against Austin, Jordan Larson, the oldest player on the team, and Sami Francis, the youngest, had 10 kills apiece. Sami, the Stanford college student who joined the team for its last seven matches, hit .563.
Jaali Winters and Kimberly Drewniok had eight kills each and Emily Thater six with no errors in 14 attacks. Omaha hit .217.
"We couldn't get anything going offensively and they out-passed us and they were all over us," Jordan said.
The four-time Olympian was already looking ahead.
"We're going to take something from this season and learn. I hope everyone comes back next year hungry and wanting to do more."
