Omaha Supernovas Fall to Columbus for Third Straight Loss at Home

It was a homestand to forget for the Omaha Supernovas.

The Supernovas suffered their third straight loss in the past week — all at home — with a 25-23, 25-22, 19-25, 25-21 setback against Columbus Thursday night.

The three-match losing streak is a first in the three-year history of the franchise. The match was also played in front of 7,126 fans, the second-smallest crowd at CHI Health Center Omaha. The only lower attendance (7,107) was on April 26, 2024, the same day tornadoes swept through west Omaha.

Omaha coach Luka Slabe said the Supernovas aren’t playing well enough to earn victories right now, especially after another slow start against Columbus.

“We’re going to have to work extremely hard and play much better volleyball for us to come up with wins. That’s the reality,” he said. “Any expectations of us cleaning the house, or we walk in and people say, ‘Here’s three points for you, here’s a win for you.’ Not anymore. Other teams are better — some not, some are better — but what we’re doing right now, that’s where we are, and it’s not enough.”

While Omaha (2-3) has now lost three in a row and is below .500 for the season, setter Sydney Hilley said they aren’t panicking right now because thy have more than 20 matches left and they are focused on what is ahead of them. Despite making the playoffs in each of the past two years, Omaha started both seasons 2-2.

“We know that every single match, whether we win or lose, we can learn something from it,” she said. “I think we’ve been doing a good job of reflecting. Every single person is staying for extra reps after practices, and everyone knows that they can do something a little bit better. I think that we’re just going to keep working to get 1% better every single chance we get so that we can get some momentum here.”

While Columbus prevailed on the scoreboard, Omaha won the battle on the stat sheet. The Supernovas finished with more kills (60-56), a better hitting percentage (.273-.267), more aces (3-2) and more blocks (10-8).

However, the Fury finished with fewer hitting errors (10-7), service errors (13-11) and more digs (64-60).

The biggest difference is when the errors happened. Omaha’s mistakes came at key moments in the match and broke any momentum.

For example, Columbus led for most of the fourth set, but almost every time the Supernovas got to within a point or two, mistakes popped up.

Down 15-14, Hilley missed her serve and then Kiara Reinhardt committed a hitting error. After getting back to within one at 19-18, Columbus blocked Brooke Nuneviller and Toyosi Onabanjo on back-to-back rallies. Nuneviller stopped the tide with a kill, but Emily Londot sailed her serve long and Columbus blocked Nuneviller again to put the Fury up 23-19 and two points away from ending the match.

“You can be outplayed but still win if certain plays happen for you at the right moment,” Slabe said. “They definitely played better in those moments. We were not as clean as we would like to be.”

Nuneviller led Omaha with 20 kills while hitting .314, adding two blocks and nine digs. Sarah Parsons added 15 kills at a .333 clip, and Londot added 13 kills and 13 digs.

For as good as the Supernovas’ pins played, the middle blockers struggled to hit consistently. Reinhardt, Onabanjo and Elise Goetzinger combined for 10 kills on 30 attacks with six errors.

Hilley, who finished with 55 assists, two blocks and two kills, said she could have done a better job getting the middle blockers involved in the offense even though they’ve been working on that in practice. She also said the Supernovas could have served tougher early on. Hilley recorded Omaha’s first ace of the match in the third set, and as a team, it served tougher in the final two sets.

“I thought our passers put me in great positions to spread the offense, and that’s just something that I need to do better,” Hilley said. “They were really in system for a lot of the game. And that’s hard to defend anyone in this league.”

Libero Morgan Hentz finisehd with 21 digs to anchor Omaha’s defense.

Columbus also took more hard swings in the match, where the Supernovas too often resorted to tip attacks.

The Fury middle blockers started quickly as Reagan Pittman-Nelson and Abby Walker each recorded four kills in the first set. Pittman-Nelson led the Fury with 13 kills on a .455 hitting percentage in the match, while Walker added nine kills and three blocks. Outside hitter Raina Terry added 11 kills, two aces and two blocks.

The result is flipped from when the teams last met 10 days ago in Columbus. Omaha earned a 3-1 victory, with the Fury only claiming the third set.

Columbus coach Ángel Pérez said they focused on improving their transition offense and fixing their blocking strategy against the Supernovas’ pin hitters. The victory was just the second for Columbus over the Supernovas in the 10 matches during the past three seasons.

“It’s a really important win for our franchise,” Pérez said. “Every day that passes, we’re starting to believe that we can compete with any of the top teams in the league. It’s morale-boosting more than anything else. For a team that had been struggling and that believed inside our locker room that we should have won the last two games, and we didn’t. This is a statement for us as a group, more than anything else, to know that we have the pieces to win important matches.”

For the second straight outing, Omaha fell behind 0-2 to start the match. On Sunday, the Supernovas fought back to force a fifth set against Orlando. In the first match of the homestand, Omaha won the first two before Atlanta reverse-swept the Supernovas.

With the loss, Omaha is tied for fourth place in the league with Atlanta and Columbus (2-3). Slabe said he didn’t know what to expect in his first year as head coach in Major League Volleyball, but he’s now aware of the high level of play that every team can bring to each match.

“Every night is an all-star game, and we’ve got to ramp it up,” Slabe said. “If we want to be in contention for playoffs — I’m not even talking about the championship yet, I’m talking about being in the top four to go to the Final Four. That’s what our goal should be, No. 1 in terms of where we want to be at the end of the season. But before that happens, we’ve got to play much more aggressive, assertive and strong volleyball from the very beginning.”

Omaha has a quick turnaround and will play on Saturday at Indy, the league’s last undefeated team. The Ignite will play their first home match of the season in front of a sold-out crowd.