Dallas clinches playoff spot and hand the Supernovas a third straight home loss

The Dallas Pulse never went on a long scoring run to pull away or break the spirits of the Omaha Supernovas. Dallas managed just one scoring run of at least four points just once and sided out 66 percent of the time when the Supernovas served.

Instead, the Pulse methodically stacked points and wore Omaha down in a 25-21, 25-21, 25-22 victory Sunday afternoon in front of 11,212 fans at CHI Health Center. 

“They don’t allow teams to score off of errors,” Omaha interim coach Thomas Robson said. “We never really got them out of a rhythm, not feeling confident their lefts can really carry them. If they have to make that change with one of their lefts putting them on the right, that’s how you know you’re causing trouble tonight. We just didn’t allow them to feel any sort of pressure from our end.”

The Pulse finished with a .320 hitting percentage for the match as Sofia Maldonado Diaz led the way with 21 kills at a .333 clip. Rookie outside hitter Mimi Colyer added 18 kills on a .405 hitting percentage.

Dallas had just one 4-0 run and five streaks of three straight points, but sided out on 34 percent of its serves. After giving up many scoring runs early in the season, the Pulse embraced wiping the memory clean and starting fresh with every serve.

“We just want to win all the time,” Dallas libero Kylie Murr said. “We don’t care what happens next. We don’t care about what happened in the past. We’re just trying to move on to the next ball, which helps us win. I just think we have a lot of grit.”

Dallas also outdug the Supernovas 58 to 34. Elena Oglivie led Omaha with 13 digs, but Omaha failed to slow down the Pulse attack for most of the match as they recorded at 53 kills over the three sets. 

“On defense, we should have done better getting stops, not hesitating and just out-gritting them on defense,” Oglievie said. “I think we were lacking that tonight.”

Omaha took a 4-3 lead in the first set before Dallas responded with its first 3-0 run. The Pulse added another three straight points later to go up 16-11. The Supernovas battled back and got as close as 22-20, but Kaylee Cox and Colyer responded with kills to quash the rally. 

Dallas faced its biggest deficit of the match — two points — in the second set. However, it went back in front behind a 4-0 run, which featured two kills from Colyer, for an 11-9 lead. Omaha kept it close and trailed 18-17 after three straight points, but the Pulse responded with another 3-0 run. 

In the third set, Dallas scored five times on its serve for a 16-11 advantage. Parsons recorded an ace as part of four consecutive Supernovas points, but again, the Pulse built its cushion back to 20-16 after kills from Maldonado Diaz, Cox and Colyer.

While the Dallas outside hitters attacked with a variety of shots and kept the Supernovas off balance, the team also got a boost from its serve receive. The Pulse finished with a 64 percent positive passing rate and made perfect passes on 32 percent of their serve receive. 

Dallas coach Shannon Winzer credited Murr, who had an 82 percent good pass percentage on 11 receptions, and middle blockers Kaitlyn Hord and Karson Bacon for putting in the work that made the offense thrive.

“Kylie is consistently passing over 70 percent most games like she was 80 percent this game, and our middle blockers are unsung heroes,” Winzer said. “With the amount of slowdowns we get, they don’t show up on this stat sheet, but that’s a huge part of it. When they don’t have a good game, our outsides don’t have a good game.

Robson switched up the starting lineup as Leyla Blackwell started her first match of the season after a career-best performance of 10 kills on Friday night. In addition, Reagan Cooper got the nod at outside hitter over Brooke Nuneviller to try to boost the offense.

However, the Supernovas never found a groove as they hit .202 for the match. Sarah Parsons led the team with 11 kills, but no one else had more than the eight from Emily Londot, who Merritt Beason replaced in the third set.

Mosher split time at setter with Hilley in the first two sets after entering the match as part of a double substitute with Beason. She ran the offense for the entire third set and finished with 15 assists and eight digs. Hilley amassed 16 assists in the first two sets. 

Even though they suffered another loss, Mosher said one of their strengths this season has been the connection between her teamamtes. Mosher said no matter who is at setter, her or Hilley, they trust each other to step up and run the offense. 

“We are each other’s biggest supporters no matter who’s in. She’s giving me advice, I’m giving her advice, letting each other know what’s open, what we could do better and what we could change,” Mosher said. “I think that’s true throughout all positions and even off the court. We hang out with each other. You can tell there’s so much love on this team.”

With the win, Dallas (17-6) became the second team to clinch a spot in the postseason, joining the Indy Ignite. The Supernovas fell to 11-13, but remained in the fourth and final playoff spot, one game ahead of Orlando, which has played two fewer matches.

The Supernovas play the two teams chasing them in the standings this week. They travel to Orlando (10-12) on Thursday and play at Atlanta (9-13) on April 19. 

The Supernovas dropped both matches this week after firing Luka Slabe on Tuesday. They haven’t had much time to dwell on the move and are trying to navigate their new reality on the fly. With just four matches left, the urgency to win and make the postseason is high.

“We don’t get 2, 3, 4 matches for them to settle in on my coaching style and for it to be okay. This is a cutthroat portion of the season,” Robson said. “We’re gonna put our heads down and get back to work, and who knows what our starting lineup will be come Orlando.”