During a timeout break, Ray Bechard wrapped up an in-arena interview with a “Let’s go, Supernovas!”
Given the action the recently retired Kansas coach witnessed on the court, he could have let out a “Rock Chalk, Jayhawk” and not been out of place.
A pair of former Kansas players powered Omaha to a 25-20, 17-25, 25-19, 25-22 victory over Grand Rapids Sunday afternoon in front of 9,457 fans at the CHI Health Center.
Reagan Cooper, who played the 2023 season at KU, finished with a team-high 15 kills while Kelsie Payne, the Jayhawks’ all-time leader in career hitting percentage, career kills, and kills per set, finished with 12 kills.
Following the match, Cooper said Bechard is why she is playing professionally. After her fifth college season, she was ready to walk away from the game, but he convinced her to give it a shot at the next level. She was named the PVF Rookie of the Year with the Columbus Fury last season before signing with Omaha in the offseason.
Former Kansas players, from left, Reagan Cooper, Toyosi Onabanjo, former Kansas head coach Ray Bechard, Kelsie Payne, Grand Rapids Rise’s Camryn Turner, and Omaha coach Laura “Bird” Kuhn, a former KU assistant, pose after the Supernovas’ match. Photo by John S. Peterson.
“He’s the reason why I continue to play volleyball in my fifth year and at this level, so all credit to him,” Cooper said. “I played for him, and then I realized I like volleyball again because I was under his coaching and his coaching staff. All the coaching staff are amazing. I wouldn’t have considered (playing professionally) if Coach B hadn’t instilled that confidence in me.”
Bechard sat courtside as he witnessed his first PVF game. He also saw two other players from his last year coaching at the match: Grand Rapids setter Camryn Turner and Supernovas middle blocker Toyosi Onabanjo, who presented him with a mini volleyball before the match.
Omaha coach Laura “Bird” Kuhn, an assistant at Kansas from 2011-17, said Bechard is a huge part of their volleyball careers, and she loves having him at matches.
“We told him he has to come back. That’s his seat now. He needs to be there for the rest of our home matches,” Kuhn said. “He is one of the best humans, best people, and I love spending time with him, so it was awesome to have him here.”
Payne helped the Supernovas (14-5) take control early as she recorded a kill and ace during a 4-0 run that gave Omaha a 23-16 lead in the first set. After Grand Rapids closed the gap with a 3-0 burst, the final three points of the first set were all missed serves.
Grand Rapids (8-12) stormed back in the second set as they ran off two 5-0 streaks and had another stretch where they won seven out of eight rallies. Outside hitter Paige Briggs-Romine went off for the Rise as she terminated on six of her nine swings in the set.
Briggs-Romine returned to Omaha for the first time since she helped the Supernovas win the league title last season. She finished with 14 kills and 14 digs for the Rise and received a loud cheer during the starting lineups.
Omaha Supernova Kelsie Payne hits the ball against the Grand Rapids Rise block. She finished with 12 kills. Photo by John S. Peterson.
“It’s always fun to come back and play against your old teammates,” she said. “It was cool being announced. I didn’t expect that. It was a good moment.”
After Grand Rapids evened the match 1-1, Cooper took over in the third set. The 6-foot-2 outside hitter scored Omaha’s first three points with kills and finished the set with eight kills on just 12 swings.
Cooper only recorded five kills on 20 swings in the first two sets. Omaha setter Natalia Valentin-Anderson, who finished with 41 assists, said she wanted to give Cooper more opportunities to terminate after the intermission.
“Reagan is just a silent killer,” Valentin-Anderson said. “I usually keep track of what I do with my hitters, and I know I hadn’t set her much in the first two sets in good situations. So I wanted to put her in the best situation possible. She had a great matchup too. So I just fed her and she produced as usual.”
Cooper said winning the third set restored Omaha’s confidence. After Grand Rapids had exploited their defense in the second set, coming out in attack mode turned the tide back in the Supernovas’ favor.
“A big message after that second set was we need to go out there and just swing because that’s what they’re doing to us,” Cooper said. “They were tooling off our block, just swinging away, and it was working. We did that as well and ended up working.”
Omaha started the fourth set strong with an 8-3 lead, but Grand Rapids chipped away and eventually went in front 20-19. The Supernovas responded with kills from Brooke Nuneviller and Kayla Caffey, who finished with 11 and nine kills, respectively.
After the Rise tied it back up, Payne and Cooper each recorded a kill that gave the Supernovas the lead for good. Payne eventually ended the match with a kill.
Carli Snyder led Grand Rapids with 20 kills. The Rise finished with more kills (57-54), blocks (12-6) and aces (4-3) and were close on hitting percentage (.240-.235), they committed 15 service errors and had trouble finding the floor against Omaha’s defense.
Omaha outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller celebrates a point against the Grand Rapids Rise. Photo by John S. Peterson.
Omaha finished with 82 digs, 19 more than Grand Rapids, led by 24 from Camila Gómez. Valentin-Anderson (20), Nuneviller (13) and Payne (13) also reached double-digit digs.
Rise coach Cathy George said they tried to serve tough, but the mistakes snowballed on them and they lost mental focus.
“When there’s a couple errors, people start backing off and not really getting that kind of hand contact that you need, and staying focused on that moment, what you’re going to do instead of what you’re worried about not doing,” she said.
With the victory, the Supernovas won six of the last seven matches and are three matches ahead of Atlanta in the loss column. Omaha will wrap up a three-week homestand with a match against Orlando on Saturday.
