Omaha Supernovas Climb Out of Early Holes, Can’t Complete Comeback Against Valkyries

The Omaha Supernovas dug out of two big holes on Sunday afternoon, but couldn’t finish off a comeback against Orlando.

Omaha dropped the first two sets and then trailed 7-0 in the fourth, but would eventually force a sprint to 15 points. However, the Supernovas’ offense failed them late in the match as the Valkyries pulled away for the win.

Orlando (3-0) remained undefeated on the season with a 25-18, 25-20, 16-25, 24-26, 15-9 victory in front of 10, 523 fans at the CHI Health Center.

Combined with losing via reverse sweep on Friday night, the Supernovas had lost five sets in a row. During intermission, outside hitter Brooke Nuneviller said they needed a big reset. While she never likes losing, Nuneviller said she was proud of how they kept fighting and rallied against Orlando.

“When you’re down two sets, especially against a team like that, it’s really hard to come back, take it to five and reverse sweep,” she said. “But it was done to us on Friday night, and I think we had a little bit of a fire under our butt from that. We can’t wait for two sets before we start to go, grind and get after it. We’re never not fighting, right? But you’ve got to start competing from the beginning.”

Early on, it did not look like Omaha (2-2) would reach the fifth set. The Valkyries took control of both the first two sets midway through.

The Supernovas led 14-13 in the first set before Orlando would close on a 12-4 run. Then in the second, the Valkyries were up 17-16 and widened their lead by claiming five of the next six rallies before the teams traded sideouts to finish the set.

Charitie Luper led the fast start for Orlando with 10 kills on a .473 hitting percentage during the first two sets.

Omaha tried to mix up its lineup to shake off the slow start. Norah TeBrake entered for outside hitter Sarah Parsons, who had just three kills on 16 swings, and Emily Londot subbed in for Merritt Beason, who finished with four kills and four errors on 16 attacks. Omaha coach Luka Slabe also made a switch at middle blocker as Kiara Reinhardt replaced Elise Goetzinger to start the third set.

The trio of substitutes combined for nine kills on 25 attacks in the third set.

TeBrake blew open the set with an 8-0 run after the score was tied at 14-all. The Creighton graduate recorded a pair of aces and two back-row kills.

However, just when it seemed Omaha had the momentum, the fourth set could not have started any worse. Natalie Foster opened the set with a kill and then went back to the end line to serve six straight points, including two aces. Orlando won every other rally during the run with kills as Brittany Abercrombie recorded two, and Luper and Hannah Maddux added one each.

Foster finally missed a serve to end the streak, but Abercrombie put the lead back to seven points with another kill.

During the ensuing media timeout, Slabe told the Supernovas to focus on trying to close the deficit to three by the next break at 16 points. However, the players did better than he suggested.

The key run came with Nuneviller serving and Omaha trailing 14-7. Reinhardt recorded back-to-back kills before TeBrake added another. After an Orlando timeout, Nuneviller’s serve fell to the floor in front of the defense and then the Valkyries struggled to handle her next one as Orlando setter Chompoo Guedpard was called for a back-row attack while trying to save an errant pass.

Abercrombie broke the streak with a kill, but the Supernovas responded with a pair of back-row kills from Nuneviller and an ace from Reinhardt.

Again, the Valkyries responded and went up 18-15, but Omaha used another 5-0 run to go in front. The Supernovas finished the set off with a kill from Nuneviller before Londot blocked a slide attack from Kaz Brown on Omaha’s second set point.

“We just talked about chipping away point by point,” TeBrake said. It’s unlikely that we were then going to go on an 8-0 run and tie it right back up. (We needed to) just staying disciplined and slowly going after it and trying to earn an extra point behind the line every single time, helped us.”

Nuneviller put up seven kills in the fourth set. The 5-foot-10 outside hitter set new career marks with 27 kills and a franchise record 66 swings. She also added 14 digs. Overall, the Supernovas finished with 187 attacks, meaning Nuneviller took 35% of the swings for the match.

Slabe said they can’t have that much of the offense run through one player, and they aren’t going to win many matches with such an unbalanced offense. He said other players need to step up to carry more of the offensive load so they aren’t as predictable.

TeBrake finished with the second-highest total of 11 kills to go with 10 digs. Londot had seven kills while Reinhardt hit .417 with six kills.

“We need to give some help to Brooke,” he said. “Everybody knows the ball is going to the left side. She’s our bailout. We cannot win like that if we’re lucky. We’ve got to figure out how we can have more people that can hit high and with range consistently all the time, and that’s all we’ve got to do. Then, when you have a diversified offense, when people are killing and showing up, then it’s easier to pass, then it’s easier to serve. When everything goes on one person or maybe two, then everything becomes really hard.”

Setter Sydney Hilley recorded 53 assists and nine digs. Libero Morgan Hentz led the defense with 15 digs.

Despite blowing the early lead, the Valkyries knew they still had hope in the fifth set.

Orlando set the tone with its serving as it recorded three aces and only allowed the Supernovas to record one point on its serve, which came via a Valkyries hitting error to put them up 3-2 early on.

The Valkyries finished with 10 aces, the most for an Omaha opponent in franchise history. Maddux led the way with four aces, and Foster added three. Even though the pair combined for 10 service errors, Orlando coach Amy Pauly said she’s fine with them because they pay off in the long run through more aggressive serving.

“Serving this week has been a huge emphasis for us,” Pauly said. “It’s probably the one area where last year we could have served tougher. This year, to really separate us from the bunch, if we can start (serving tough). Aces are great, but even just knocking teams out of being in system and giving ourselves opportunities.”

Meanwhile, Orlando ran off three straight points to go back in front and then added another 3-0 run after the score was tied at 6-all. It then ended the match by scoring the final four points.

Abercrombie, Orlando’s opposite, recorded five of her 22 kills in the fifth set. Luper added 14 kills, while Maddux added 13.

The Valkyries are used to playing long matches, having played 14 sets in their first three outings. Luper said that after dropping the fourth set, they knew they had to start the final frame with a good mindset.

“We’re just such a tough team,” Luper said. “We know how tough we are, and we know that we can grit it out in tough moments. We just trusted each other in that fifth set, looked at each other in the eyes and said, ‘Hey, let’s go. We’re winning this.’”

Despite coming up short, Slabe said he liked how they fought back to force a fifth set, but their offense sputtered at the most critical moments.

“We were deep in trouble after the first two sets, and we made some adjustments,” he said. “I’m very proud of what we accomplished, being down, and we fought back and put ourselves again in a situation where we can be successful. The tiebreak is a lottery. Unfortunately, we point-scored 0% — that means on our serve, we did not win a point. It’s really, really hard to not do that and be successful against the national champions from last year.”