This Week’s Matches
RISE (8-8) at Atlanta Vibe (15-4) // Tue., April 16 // 7 p.m. // Gas South Arena
Watch: YouTube at 7 p.m.
Season Series: 2-1 Overall, 1-0 Away. Fourth of four meetings overall, second of two at Gas South Arena
Noteworthy: Grand Rapids comes in having won two straight matches, and a third win a row would set a franchise record. Atlanta has strung together six consecutive wins. The Vibe lead the League with a 15-4 record and have already secured a playoff spot a month before postseason play starts on May 15.
RISE vs. Orlando Valkyries (7-10) // Thu., April 18 // 7 p.m. // Van Andel Arena
Listen: 96.1 The Game at 6:45 p.m.
Watch: YouTube at 7 p.m.
Season Series: 1-2 Overall, 0-1 Home. Fourth of four meetings overall, second of two at Van Andel Arena
Noteworthy: The Rise beat the Valkyries for the first time on April 11 with a 3-0 road sweep. Orlando had won the previous two meetings, including a five-set win inside Van Andel Arena. The Valkyries have fallen to fifth place in the League standings — one spot outside of playoff contention — after dropping their last two matches to the Rise and the San Diego Mojo last week.
RISE at Vegas Thrill (5-12) // Sat., April 20 // 10 p.m. ET // Lee’s Family Forum
Watch: YouTube at 10 p.m.
Season Series: 2-1 Overall, 1-0 Home. Fourth of four meetings overall, second of two at Lee’s Family Forum
Noteworthy: Grand Rapids avoided falling victim to another Vegas reserve sweep by winning a pivotal fifth set on Saturday. The Thrill are the only team the Rise have played two five-set matches against. Vegas is 1-7 when playing at home this season, with the lone victory coming against San Diego on Feb. 19.
Series Coming to a Close: The Grand Rapids Rise will wrap up three regular-season series this week against the Atlanta Vibe, Orlando Valkyries, and Vegas Thrill. It's the fourth and final time that Grand Rapids will play each of them in the inaugural Pro Volleyball Federation regular season. The Rise lead two out of three series by holding a 2-1 edge over Atlanta and Vegas. Orlando is currently up 2-1 on Grand Rapids. Head-to-head results could play an important role at the end of the season, as they are the first tiebreaker for the League standings. The second tiebreaker, if both teams beat each other twice during the season, is most match sweeps.
Atlanta, which became the first team to clinch a playoff berth on Sunday when San Diego defeated Orlando, has over half of the sweeps in the League this season with eight. Omaha is second with three, Grand Rapids has two, and the other four teams all have one 3-0 victory.
New Addition: The Rise signed 6-foot-3 middle blocker Molly Lohman on Monday. She became the first in-season addition in the franchise's brief history. To make room for Lohman on the active roster, middle blockers Sydney Bolding and Nia Grant were waived.
Lohman, a native of Mankato, Minnesota, has been playing professional for six seasons in six countries: France, Switzerland, Finland, United States, Hungary, and Philippines. She was named the best middle blocker in the 2021-22 Finnish Cup. Internationally, Lohman competed with the USA Collegiate national team at the 2016 Global Challenge in Pula, Croatia, where the team won gold and she was named the MVP of the tournament.
Lohman graduated from the University of Minnesota (2014-17) and was an AVCA All-American honorable mention in 2016. In the Minnesota volleyball record book, she still ranks third all-time in total blocks (536) and attack percentage (.356) with a minimum 1,000 attempts. During her junior season in 2016, Lohman totaled the second-most total blocks for the Golden Gophers in a single season with 177.
Go Go Gómez: After primarily being used as a defensive specialist and substitute server, Camila Gómez made her first start this season as the Rise's libero at Orlando on Thursday, April 11. The 5-foot-2 Colombian national team member played all three sets, collecting 11 digs and two assists. She made a handful of diving plays to extend key rallies. Gómez then got the nod to start again at libero on April 13 against Vegas. She picked up a team-high 17 digs and chipped in with four assists.
Blocking Out: Grand Rapids has won its last two matches despite being outblocked. Orlando had one more block (8-7) on April 11, while Vegas notched a new season high of 21 blocks against the Rise (14) on April 13. The Rise are 6-2 this season when having more blocks than their opponents, and 2-6 when they have same or fewer blocks.
Middle blocker Marin Grote has been a force at the net for the Rise with a team-high 49 blocks, followed by Emiliya Dimitrova (23), Ashley Evans (22), and Kayla Caffey (21). Grand Rapids averages 2.48 blocks per set.
Set-By-Set Breakdown: A look at how the Rise have fared across the different sets:
- First Set: 11-5 with a +40 point differential (395-355);
- Second Set: 10-6 with a +2 differential (370-368);
- Third Set: 6-10 with a -2 point differential (380-382);
- Fourth Set: 6-8 with a -9 point differential (337-346);
- Fifth Set: 2-3 with a -5 point differential (60-65).
With eight regular-season matches remaining, Grand Rapids has a +26 point differential (1,542-1,516) and is 35-32 across all sets played. The Rise are 7-14 in sets decided by the minimum of two points and 15-11 in sets decided by five points or more.
Caught in a Whirlwind: The Rise are currently playing five matches in the span of 10 days, which will include travel before and after each match. The schedule looks like this: at Orlando (4/11), travel home to Grand Rapids to face Vegas (4/13), at Atlanta (4/16), home again against Orlando (4/18), and then over to Vegas to see the Thrill again (4/20). The multi-stop journey is roughly 6,575 miles and doesn't include the road trip to face Omaha (4/26) and Columbus (4/28) later this month. The Rise have four road matches left and will complete them before April is over.
Finding the Broom: Since sweeping the Fury in the season opener on Jan. 25, the Rise had only played in four and five set matches. That changed April 11 in Orlando, as the Rise secured their second 3-0 victory of the season.
Sweeps have been uncommon for the entire League with only 17 happening in the 57 matches played so far (29.8%). There have been 26 four-set matches (45.6%) and 14 five-set matches (24.6%). Grand Rapids and Omaha are the only two teams that have completed a sweep this season and haven't been swept themselves.
Rise – Vibe Connections: Two who followed a similar path to the pros and two teammate reunions:
- Atlanta Vibe head coach Todd Dagenais graduated from Central Michigan ('95) and spent five seasons with the Michigan State women's volleyball team from 1998-2003 serving as the associate head coach. He left the program before Rise head coach Cathy George took over as MSU's head coach in 2005.
- Rise setter Ashley Evans (2013-17) and Vibe opposite hitter Grace Cleveland (2018-21) played college volleyball for Purdue but missed being teammates by a year.
- Middle blockers Kayla Caffey (Rise) and Shelly Fanning (Vibe) played together professionally in Puerto Rico with Criollas de Caguas during the 2022-23 season.
- Middle blockers Molly Lohman (Rise) and Regan Pittman (Vibe) played two seasons together at the University of Minnesota from 2016-17. Pittman redshirted in 2016.
Rise – Valkyries Connections: While neither team has any players from the opposing state, former teammates will reunite:
- Ashley Evans and Valkyries middle blocker Blake Mohler played at Purdue together for two seasons (2015-16). Mohler redshirted in 2015, but both played for the Boilermakers in 2016 and helped Purdue reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
- Orlando outside hitter Carly Skjodt is a former University of Michigan volleyball captain and played three seasons (2016-18) with Rise director of volleyball operations MacKenzi Welsh-Vazquez. Skjodt also played in the AVP Beach Volleyball tour against Rise libero Sarah Sponcil.
- Outside hitters Shannon Scully (Rise) and Adora Anae (Valkyries) were part of the 2017 Utah volleyball team that reached the NCAA Tournament regional semifinals.
- Valkyries head coach Amy Pauly coached Scully for one season (2021) at USC.
Rise – Thrill Connections: Players meeting again and a Michigan native standing out for Vegas:
- The Rise face their former teammate Kenna Sauer, who started the season on the Grand Rapids' practice squad before getting claimed by Vegas on Feb. 12. Sauer has played in all three previous matches against the Rise, averaging 2.18 kills, 0.36 blocks, and 0.27 aces per set.
- Rise setter Mac Podraza and Thrill players Gabby Gonzales and Kylie Murr played four seasons together at Ohio State (2019-22).
- Vegas setter Alisha Glass Childress is from Leland, Michigan. She won the Week 8 Pro Volleyball Federation Player of the Week award by helping the Thrill beat the Rise on March 17. Glass Childress tossed up 56 assists and added 10 digs in the match.
Photo by Nicolas Carrillo/Rise