The Omaha Supernovas fell in their second straight five-set thriller Sunday afternoon to the Orlando Valkyries, 3-2 (18-25, 20-25, 25-16, 26-24, 9-15). The Supernovas dropped both games of the second week for the second time this season, despite Brooke Nuneviller setting a franchise record for kills in a match with 27.
“Looking at our passing numbers, that was our best performance, yet in the first two sets we could not score,” Supernovas head coach Luka Slabe said. “What was the problem? We were not killing the ball, so we had to throw in some hammers that are going to go and hit the ball hard. It was not an easy decision, but a necessary decision. I think we made a good decision to put us back in business. We needed to give some help to Brooke. Brooke can not take a third of all the swings in the match. She did, but that’s not how we’re going to win. Other players need to step up in matches like this because she (Nuneviller) cannot take 66 out of 187 swings.”
The Supernovas struggled in the first two sets, hitting .146 and .179 respectfully. Sarah Parsons would score the first two points for Omaha on a pair of kills,while Brooke Nuneviller would add two more and the Orlando made two serve errors. The match stayed even as Orlando would tie the game at six, eight, eleven, and twelve points. Orlando was finally able to get some seperation after tying the game at twelve points, and they would take the next five of seven points. Omaha would force an Orlando timeout down 20-18, but Orlando would slam the door shut scoring the next five points to win the first set 25-18.
The second set was still very back and forth, with Orlando taking small leads but Omaha finding ways to tie the game back up again. After tying the set at 10, Orlando would win the next six of eight points to take a 16-12 lead. Despite a three point rally from Omaha where Nuneviller and Norah TeBrake would notch a kill and Sydney Hilley would block an Orlando attack, Orlando would burn a timeout to rally back and take the second.
Head Coach Luka Slabe would make three lineup changes going into the third set. Kiara Reinhardt started at middle blocker, while Emily Londot was an opposite and TeBrake was at opposite hitter. Neither team was able to get a solid lead until midway through the match, when Omaha would score six straight points to take a 20-14 lead, later winning 25-16. Slabe’s changes helped Omaha’s hitting for the better, with a .326 hitting percentage and no attack errors.
“We were deep in trouble after the first two sets, and we made some adjustments,” Slabe said. “We felt like we needed to make some adjustments and bring some reinforcements on the court. We did that, and it paid back big time.”
The fourth set started in disaster for Omaha, as the Valkyries scored eight straight points on Natalie Foster’s serve, with two of them as aces. After being down 8-1, 12-5, and 14-7 at points in the fourth set, the Supernovas would tie the game at 15. Omaha would take five of the next eight points to force an Orlando timeout, and taking the fourth set on a Londot block.
Neither team could get seperation in the fifth set until a pair of errors allowed Orlando to take its first multiple point lead at 8-6. Orlando would later extend their lead to three points when Omaha took a timeout down 10-7, and Orlando wouldnt allow Omaha back in, scoring five of the next seven points.
Orlando had ten service aces in the match, which is an Omaha franchise record for aces against the Supernovas, while Brittany Abercrombie led the team with 22 kills on 50 swings. Charitie Luper had 14 kills, and Hannah Maddux had 13. The Valkyries hit .279 for the match.
Omaha was led by Nuneviller’s 27 kills, with TeBrake adding 11. Morgan Hentz had 15 digs, and Sydney Hilley led the Supernovas with 53 assists.
The Supernovas are at home on Thursday when they host the Columbus Fury at the CHI Health Center.
