Valkyries right the ship
All Volleyball! potpourri: Second-place Orlando club tops Mojo; Four more USA women's pairs emerge from Yucatan beach 'Q'
The Orlando Valkyries (12-6) exacted some payback against the team that ended their record nine-match winning streak, dumping the San Diego Mojo (6-12) in four sets on Wednesday night.
Getting strong efforts from their middles to offset a “just OK” statistical performance by lefty superstar opposite Brittany Abercrombie, the Valks strengthened their grip on second place in the Pro Volleyball Federation, two games in the loss column behind the Omaha Supernovas. The Atlanta Vibe are in third at 10-8.
Abercrombie hit an atypical .148 with 15 kills on 47 swings against eight errors, but scored some winners at key moments. She added an ace, three blocks and nine digs.
Both of the Valks’ middle blockers got double-digit kills. Kaz Brown picked up 10 to go along with three blocks. Natalie Foster continued her lights-out serving, dialing up three aces, which pushed her PVF-record total to 41. The 6-foot-4 rookie sensation enjoyed the most efficient hitting percentage of her last nine outings, attacking at a .500 clip (13-for-24 with a single miscue). Foster had gone 11-for-31 against four errors (.225) in her team’s recent setbacks to the Mojo and Supernovas.
Lindsey Van Weide got the starting nod at outside hitter and responded with 11 kills, one block and 17 digs while passing “positive” on a sterling 67% of her 33 service receptions. At the other OH, Courtney Schwan (13 kills, one block, 16 digs) repeatedly flummoxed the Mojo with sweet roll shots into the middle of the doughnut. Courtney passed positive on 57% of her 26 targets.
The Mojo put up a tussle in the first two sets, both taken at deuce by the visitors. The first swung on an unforced attack error by MB Ronika Stone and was culminated by a pair of first-ball sideout kills by Abercrombie. A tight-throughout second set was sealed by Abercrombie’s kill, a setting violation whistled on the Mojo’s Da-yeong Lee and Brittany’s block of rookie OH Maya Tabron.
The Valks let down their guard a bit in a duece third set won by the Mojo. But they dealt the discombobulated hosts a far different hand in the fourth. As a midweek crowd of 1,328 at Viejas Arena watched in shock, Coach Amy Pauly’s crew broke out to cushions of 9-2, and 20-6 (after a seven-point surge) before closing it out by 13 points.
Tabron again was a bright spot for the Mojo with 15 kills, four of her team’s 14 blocks and 14 digs. Stone notched 11 kills on .450 effectiveness, adding three blocks and four digs. However, veteran OH Kendra Dahlke hit .000 on 32 swings and struggled mightily in serve-receive, passing positive on a paltry 23% of her 30 attempts.
The Valkyries again put up big numbers on the live stream of the PVF’s free YouTube channel. I logged a peak of 38,169 live “views” near the end of the fourth set.
(NOTE: More PVF happenings can be found in the “Spikes and digs” section below.)
Yucatan Challenge beach update
The 32-team main women’s draw of the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour’s Yucatan Challenge in Mexico will have nine American pairs. Four more advanced out of the qualifier held Wednesday on the Playa de Progreso (with seeds in parentheses): Hailey Harward-Molly Phillips (26), Savvy Simo-Abby Van Winkle (27), Xolani Hodel-Madison Shields (28) and Devon Newberry-Jaden Whitmarsh (31).
American duos already seeded in the field were Toni Rodriguez-Kylie Deberg (6), Kimberly Hildreth-Teegan Van Gunst (11), Julia Scoles-Lexy Denaburg (13), Maddie Anderson-Brook Baeur (21) and Corrine Quiggle-Chloe Loreen (22).
AVP mainstays Trevor Crabb and Cody Caldwell failed to survive the men’s “Q,” getting bounced in the second round by the Swiss pair of Yves Haussener and 18-year-old Julian Friedli. Trevor and Cody had eliminated fellow Americans Avery Drost and Caleb Kwekel in the opening round. Also ousted in the first round were Hagen Smith-Logan Webber, while Derek Bradford-Jordan Hoppe took a loss in the second.
The lone American pair added to the 32-team men’s main draw were Timothy Brewster and Ryan Ierna, who advanced on a first-round forfeit by a team from Chile and defeated an Israeli tandem in the second round. The American men’s teams (with seeds in parentheses): Olympians Chase Budinger-Miles Evans (6), Chaim Schalk-James Shaw (14), Tri Bourne-Evan Cory (19) and Brewster-Ierna (32).
Pool play in Yucatan will commence on Thursday. The BPT’s new Challenge format will feature eight pools in each gender.
Spikes and digs …
McKendree (14-5, 9-1 MIVA) stretched its winning streak to 11, but not before sweating out a reverse sweep on its home court against gritty Lindenwood (6-12, 3-7). Ranked 10th in the AVCA Division I-II men’s coaches poll, the Bearcats dropped the first two sets, but clawed back, prevailing in the tiebreaker 15-11. Senior OH Kevin Schuele (Wheaton St. Francis) collected 15 kills, two aces, three blocks and eight digs. McKendree’s career leader in services winners with 84 and counting, Schuele broke his program record for aces in a season with 34, one more than he scored in 2024.
The Orlando Valkyries placed second-year starting libero Georgia Murphy on PVF season-ending injured reserve. Coach Amy Pauly had used Murphy and rookie Nalani Iosia in a libero platoon with Murphy handling points in serve-receive and Iosia on the court when her team served. OH Shannon Scully filled Murphy’s role against the Mojo on Wednesday. The Valks brought MB M'Kaela White up from the practice squad.
The San Diego Mojo continued to shuffle their roster. The team signed veteran 6-foot-1 OH T’ara Ceasar and placed her on the practice squad. A Florida product, Ceasar has played overseas on clubs in Serbia, Germany, Italy and Poland. The Mojo also reactivated MB Regan Pittman and placed rookie MB Leyla Blackwell on the practice squad.
The TV numbers for another Pro Volleyball Federation match have been unearthed (trust me, finding this information can be like pulling teeth). According to the Nielsen ratings, the Vegas Thrill at Indy Ignite contest on Feb. 27 (a Thursday night) logged a total-average viewership of 27,000 on cable Fox Sports 1.
League One Volleyball signed 6-foot-6 rookie Sami Francis, who enjoyed a distinguished career at Stanford, to bolster Omaha’s group of middle blockers.
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