The Orlando Valkyries defeated the Columbus Fury 3-1 on Thursday at Addition Financial Arena. With the win, the Valkyries snapped their six-game losing streak at home dating back to January.
“You have so much pride for playing at home, and I know that it really has just kind of been this monkey that they’ve been trying to get off their back,” Valkyries coach Amy Pauly said. “They show up and play hard every time they walk into this gym. I think we’ve had, starting at Dallas, we had really, really great team chemistry, and we’ve been talking about a behavior change that our team needs. I know it didn’t show in Grand Rapids, but I think that was a lot of fatigue setting in, and so, hopefully, you know, we did it tonight, so hopefully we can turn around and get recovered and do it again after another 48 hour game.”
Valkyries outside hitter Charitie Luper led the match with 23 kills, one shy of her career-high 24 against Columbus earlier this season. Meanwhile, Raina Terry led the Fury with 12 kills, only having six kills in their final three sets.
“[Luper] could be really, really great in this league,” Pauly said. “Right now, she’s good. I’ll give it to her. She’s good, but I think she can be great, and I hope that she kind of recognizes that and learns that this is only the beginning for her, but she’s got to keep getting better.”
Match flow
At the start of the first set, Terry recorded three-straight kills for Columbus, setting the tone for the visitors. After Orlando held a two-point lead, the Fury would rally on a 5-0 run that included two attack errors by Naya Shime and two points by Megan Lush.
The Valkyries tied the game at 11, but the Fury responded with a 7-2 run, featuring two more attack errors on Orlando. Columbus would hold at least a three-point lead for the remainder of the set, closing out with a 25-19 victory. Terry led the set with six kills, while Kaz Brown had three for the Valkyries.
“We don’t hit low numbers very often,” Pauly said. “We’re a very offensive team. We hit .049 in the first set and only had 10 kills.”
Orlando opened the second set with a 9-1 run, including three service aces: back-to-back aces by Natalie Foster and one from Lindsey Vander Weide. The Fury were able to cut the lead to three, but a 5-1 run by the Valkyries grew their lead, mainly due to the influx of energy from their bench players.
“I think, at least for me, as a coach, we’ve really been teetering the line between experience versus maybe some athleticism that our younger players are giving us,” Pauly said. ”And just statistically, after the first set, we said we have to do something different.”
The teams would trade the final 16 points, with neither team scoring two points in a row. Once again, the final score was 25-19, with Luper leading the set with six kills and Lush with five for Columbus.
Coming out of halftime, the back-and-forth nature of the second set continued into the third. However, Columbus surged ahead by three points off the backs of a 5-2 run heading into the first media timeout.
Out of the timeout, Orlando went on a 5-0 run to claim the lead, including three-straight kills by Luper and back-to-back aces from Foster for the second set in a row. The Fury would never take the lead again in set three, going on to lose 25-22.
“I think [Foster’s serve] is not a problem of Columbus, but of the whole league for the last few years,” Columbus Fury coach Ángel Pérez said. “We try to prepare as much as we can, but it’s like closer when she throws 100 miles an hour on the ninth inning. Hard to hit that ball. So we try to do the best we can. pray that she misses sometimes, to be honest.”
Once again, Luper led the set in kills with eight, while three Fury players (Jaelyn Hodge, Terry and Lush) each had four.
The Valkyries carried their momentum into a dominant start to set four, beginning on a 13-3 run. Luper had four kills in the span, with setter Chompoo Guedpard setting a new career-high with her fourth kill as well.
“Pornpun [Chompoo Guedpard] is a game changer,” Pérez said. ”She was not there on the last game. No disrespect to Hannah Pukis, great setter, but the setter becomes better with experience, and I think Pornpun has a lot more experience than Hannah. I think that changes the game for them.”
Columbus could not crawl out of the hole dug at the start of the set, falling 25-14 in their third-straight set loss. Luper led the fourth with seven kills and Hodge led the Fury with three.
Next up
The Valkyries wrap up their homestand against the Dallas Pulse on Saturday. The Pulse boast a 6-1 record on the road, tied with the Indy Ignite and Valkyries for best in the MLV.
“We get actually get to practice on our home floor tomorrow, which, we never get to do,” Pauly said. “Just getting an opportunity to be on our home floor, I think is huge for them. It’s really just trying to find our edge in that second game and can we move a little quicker when the game starts? Can we get on the ball a little bit faster? We always do to get them prepared and ready to go and have their bodies feel great.”
First serve against the Pulse is set for 7 p.m. on March 7.