GRAND RAPIDS RISE 0 at Dallas Pulse 3
Feb. 22, 2026
FRISCO, Tx. — Grand Rapids Rise outside hitter Paige Briggs-Romine recorded the 16th double-double of her Rise career, tying Claire Chaussee and Carli Snyder for the most in franchise history. However, the Dallas Pulse secured their second win over Grand Rapids this season with a 3-0 home win inside the Comerica Center.
Dallas hit .322 as a team and claimed the final two sets by the minimum of two points, earning a 25-20, 27-25, 25-23 victory. It marked the Pulse’s second sweep of the season and the Rise’s third sweep loss.
The Rise opened the match with a 7-4 lead following a block and kill from Briggs-Romine. The 5-foot-10 attacker from Ortonville, Michigan, was highly efficient in the first set, tallying five kills on seven swings (.714) while adding two blocks and five digs. She finished with 13 kills on a season-high .357 hitting percentage, team-high 14 digs, and two blocks.
Despite the early surge, Grand Rapids trailed 16-11 at the media timeout, hitting .000 as a team with six kills and six errors on 24 attempts. Three of the six kills coming from Briggs-Romine.
Miscues getting the ball in play a major role in the opening frame, as nine of the set’s points came on service errors — five by the Rise and four by Dallas — with neither team recording an ace in first set.
Facing a 20-15 deficit, Grand Rapids inserted setter Camryn Turner and rookie Candela Alonso-Corcelles, but the five-point margin held firm. The Pulse closed out the set 25-20 on a down-the-line finish from reigning MLV Player of the Week Sofia Maldonado Diaz.
Maldonado Diaz finished with a match-high 18 points on 17 kills (.371) and an ace.
Alonso-Corcelles recorded her first professional kill at the start of the second set, but the Pulse forged ahead and built a 15-9 advantage. Facing another 20-15 deficit, the Rise mounted a 7-1 run to swing the momentum. An out-of-system kill from Snyder, set up by a towering dig from setter Saige Ka'aha'aina-Torres and a long bump set from Briggs-Romine, ignited the push. Snyder later followed the highlight-reel play with an ace to make it 21-20, and Briggs-Romine evened the score at 21-21 with another kill.
Trading points down the stretch, Grand Rapids fought off two set points with kills from middle blocker Leah Meyer and Briggs-Romine. But Dallas capitalized on its third opportunity, as Mimi Colyer notched her ninth kill of the match to seal a 27-25 set win and a 2-0 Pulse lead.
Colyer, the first overall pick in the 2025 MLV Draft, collected 14 points on 14 kills while hitting .343. It was her fifth match hitting above .300 this season.
A block from Rhamat Alhassan and an ace from Ka'aha'aina-Torres gave the Rise the first two points of the third set, but the Pulse quickly answered with back-to-back kills from Maldonado Diaz. For a third consecutive set, the Rise entered the media timeout trailing but used a 3-0 run out of the break to regain a 17-16 lead.
The set remained tight down the stretch. Tied at 21-21, Dallas scored three straight points on a block and ace from Kaylee Cox, followed by a fifth kill from middle blocker Layne Van Buskirk.
Grand Rapids fought off two match points with a fifth kill from Alexis Shelton and a Pulse attack error before Dallas closed out the match 25-23 on a kill from Maldonado Diaz that Shelton narrowly missed blocking the ball back into the court.
Notes
· Out of six Pulse players who recorded an attack attempt, five hit above .250 and four finished above .340. Middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord led the way with a .571 hitting percentage, posting five kills and one attack error on seven swings.
· The Rise only had one fewer dig than the Pulse, 50-49, with Briggs-Romine (14), Ka’aha’aina-Torres (13), and Morgan Hentz (10) reaching double figures for Grand Rapids. Hentz also had six assists on out-of-system balls.
· Meyer delivered an error-free attacking performance, posting six kills on 13 attempts for a team-high .462 hitting percentage.
GR 20 25 23 — 0
DAL 25 27 25 — 3
Team Leaders
GR: Kills — Paige Briggs-Romine 13, Carli Snyder 9, Rhamat Alhassan 6, Leah Meyer 6; Assists — Saige Ka’aha’aina-Torres 31, Morgan Hentz 6, Camryn Turner 3; Aces — Snyder 1, Ka’aha’aina-Torres 1; Blocks — Briggs-Romine 2, Alhassan 2; Digs — Briggs-Romine 14, Ka’aha’aina-Torres 13, Hentz 10.
DAL: Kills — Sofia Maldonado Diaz 17, Mimi Colyer 14, Kaylee Cox 9; Assists — Natalia Valentin-Anderson 44; Aces — Maldonado Diaz 1, Cox 1; Blocks — Kaitlyn Hord 3, Layne Van Buskirk 2; Digs — Valentin-Anderson 11, Cox 11, Maldonado Diaz 9, Kylie Murr 9.
A — 1,784
Record / Next Match
Grand Rapids: 3-8 / Thu, Feb. 26 vs. San Diego Mojo, 7 p.m.
Dallas: 8-4 / Fri., Feb. 27 vs. Orlando Valkyries, 8 p.m.
Photo by Dallas Pulse