The Orlando Valkyries lost to the Dallas Pulse 3-2 Sunday at Addition Financial Arena. Dallas became the only team so far this season to start down by two sets to then come back and win in five sets.
“We just didn’t make a good enough change,” Orlando Valkyries coach Amy Pauly said. “Listen, it’s hard to sweep, you guys. Like, it’s really hard to sweep. A team is gonna make a change on you and you gotta figure it out, but we could have done something a little bit different in the fourth set. Honestly, that one’s probably on me with what rotation we started in and it was a miss. I guessed on something trying to get a matchup and didn’t go our way. And so that’s just kind of how it goes sometimes, but they battle back and we’ll, we’ll play everybody better the 2nd time. It’s so early in the season. You don’t have that much film on them. You think that you’re making game plans and then things just go the other way.”
Despite a bounce back performance by reigning MVP Brittney Abercrombie, including a team-leading 17 kills and 11 digs, her team could not close out the game. Mimi Coyler, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 MLV draft, led the game with 21 kills, while Kylie Murr and former FIU Panther Natalia Valentin-Anderson led the match with 15 digs.
Game flow
Orlando’s starting unit looked different than their last match against the Ignite, as Hannah Maddux and rookie Bre Kelly started in place of Lindsey Vander Weide and Natalie Foster. Kelly, the No. 5 pick in the 2025 draft, made her first MLV start after appearing in the Valkyries’ first four matches.
“It’s early in the season,” Pauly said. “I mean, we’re looking for a lot of different answers. We’re looking for who plays well next to each other. And I think those are hard things to figure out because you might have a different match depending on who is on the floor. But for Bre specifically, we wanted to see if we could get some better block production and slow down the other team’s offenses. I thought she really picked it up in the fourth set. I mean, she had a series there where she just went pin to pin, and got a touch on everything, and we need that kind of blocking mentality for the whole match.”
The teams went back and forth for the first 10 points of the set, but Dallas pulled ahead and held the lead through the media timeout. However, Orlando would reclaim the lead on a block by Kaz Brown at 20-19.
Back and forth action returned and brought the set into overtime where it seemed like Dallas had set point after a blocking error by Kelly. The Valkyries challenged the call and had to replay the point, which they won. Maddux collected her fifth service ace of the season to win the set 26-24.
Much like the previous set, the teams would trade blows through the first 25 points. Orlando went on a 3-0 run before the media timeout sparked back-to-back kills by Abercrombie. Through the second set, Abercrombie surpassed her kill total from the four-set match against Indy on Thursday.
The Valkyries held the lead until the Pulse tied the set at 21 on a 3-0 run. Despite losing the lead, Orlando would go on a 4-1 run to win their second-straight set, only needing one more for a match victory.
Coming out of halftime, the Pulse had life, beginning the third set on a 3-0 run. The early lead they built was held through the entire set. Even though the Valkyries got the score within one six times through the first 20 points, they could not tie or claim the lead.
Dallas won the set 25-16, holding Orlando to its lowest points in a set this season. Through five matches, the Valkyries have lost every Set 3.
“I think just not being over anxious to get it done; it’s no problem to go to four sets for us, even five sets,” Valkyries outside hitter Lindsey Vander Weide said. “Obviously, we’d rather not, but I think we feel like we absolutely need to get it done in three when you’re smacking a team in the first two sets. It kinda just feels like that’s what should happen. And you just kind of get anxious to get it done. And I think, like she said, we made a couple errors in the third set coming in, and we kind of started a little flustered. I think we need to come in with the same demeanor that we start the first set. We have a different outcome, I think. Now, I know we’re talking about not a lot of film to go off of.”
The Pulse continued to mount their comeback, starting the fourth set with a 4-0 run. After digging themselves a hole, the Valkyries trailed for the majority of the set. Midway through the set, they trailed by as many as five points.
After trailing Dallas for 86-straight points, Orlando would claim their first lead of the set at 23-22 following a 6-2 run. However, the Pulse responded with a 4-0 run to tie the match at 2-2.
To start the final set, Orlando claimed an early 5-3 lead, including two points scored off of errors. Dallas would surge ahead and complete their comeback with a 12-4 run to close the contest.
In five matches, Orlando has blown two 2-0 leads and has gone 1-1 in those games.
Next up
The Valkyries will begin a two game road trip next Thursday against the Grand Rapids Rise. Orlando beat Grand Rapids in its season opener.
“Disappointed in the results,” Pauly said. “This is a couple games now that we’ve been just trending downward as the match has gone on, and we’ve got to really figure out the reason for that. And I know that this team is gonna take this loss pretty seriously and get back to the drawing board on Tuesday.”
First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. on Jan. 29.