GRAND, RAPIDS, MI.– The Omaha Supernovas (16-7) aim to end the regular season on a high note and extend its four-match winning streak with a battle against the Grand Rapids Rise (11-12) on Sunday, May 12. The Mother’s Day match is set for 4:30 p.m. CDT at Van Andel Arena.
The Supernovas will make their third appearance on CBS Sports Network with Paul Sunderland and Holly McPeak on the call.
The match will also be broadcast live on the Supernovas Radio Network, featuring its flagship station 93.7 The Ticket. The broadcast will also be live on 95.7 The Boss (Omaha), KRVN (Lexington), KOLT (Scottsbluff), and KTIC (West Point). Award-winning broadcaster Derrick Pearson and AVCA High School Coach of the Year Renee Saunders will provide commentary.
Full match notes can be found here.
Both teams have already secured their spot in the first Pro Volleyball Federation Championship set to take place at the CHI Health Center in Omaha on May 15 and May 18. Omaha is locked in as the No. 2 seed while Grand Rapids is No. 4. The Supernovas will take on the San Diego Mojo Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. CDT with the Rise battling the No. 1 seed Atlanta Vibe at 6 p.m. CDT. Both matches will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
Omaha is playing some of the best volleyball of its season, entering Sunday on a four-match winning streak. That includes a five-set win over the Rise on April 26 at CHI. The Supernovas followed with a 3-1 win over Columbus which preceded two-straight sweeps over Vegas and the Fury. Omaha is also unbeaten against Grand Rapids this season, taking two four-set victories on Feb. 11 and March 28 before the five-set win last month.
The Rise snapped a three-match losing streak on May 5 in a sweep of the Mojo in Grand Rapids. That losing streak began with the five-set loss in Omaha.
The Supernovas continue to be the best serving team in the Pro Volleyball Federation. Omaha leads the league with 4.09 aces per match posting 94 aces in 23 contests. That’s led by Olympian Bethania de la Cruz who leads the league with 31 aces. Grand Rapids enters Sunday fourth in the Pro Volleyball Federation with 3.17 aces per match as the season total for the Rise stands at 73 aces in 23 contests. Middle blocker Marin Grote leads the Rise with 16 aces on the season.
Omaha middle blockers Hristina Vuchkova and Tori Dixon are one of the most lethal middle combos in the league. Vuchkova has a team-high 66 blocks which equates to a league-leading 3.33 blocks per match average. Dixon isn’t too far behind with 62 blocks, but both middle blockers co-own the franchise record with six blocks in one match as Dixon equaled that mark against Grand Rapids on April 26.
De la Cruz has stepped up her game in the closing stages of the inaugural Pro Volleyball Federation regular season. The Dominican Republic native struggled from Feb. 21 through March 30, averaging 5.6 kills on a .113 hitting percentage in eight matches. Since the calendar has turned over to April, the Omaha attacker has taken her game to new heights averaging 16.89 kills on a .314 clip in nine contests including a franchise-record 26 kills twice in back-to-back contests.
Grand Rapids is home to one of the fiercest duos in the league with outside hitter Claire Chaussee and opposite Emiliya Dimitrova. Chaussee is second in the league in kills (375) and fifth in kills per set (4.03) while Dimitrova is the league leader in kills per set at 4.31 while third in kills with 362.
Setter Ashley Evans is a key component in that success as the Rise’s distributor has a league-high 960 assists on the season which equates to 10.91 assists per set. That is also first in the league. Grote is equally fearsome from the middle as she is the service line, totaling 64 blocks on the season which is third in the PVF. She’s also eighth in hitting percentage at .298.
The Supernovas will return home to face the San Diego Mojo in the semifinals of the first Pro Volleyball Federation Championship on Wednesday, May 15 at the CHI Health Center in downtown Omaha. The Supernovas will play at 8:30 p.m. CDT with television coverage on CBS Sports Network.
