The Atlanta Vibe haven’t played since May 2, but don’t worry about libero Morgan Hentz being rusty.
No, while her team was back home preparing for the Pro Volleyball Federation Championship that begins Wednesday, Hentz was in the USA national-team gym in Anaheim.
“I had this perfect opportunity to come out here and thankfully the USA staff has been flexible with me being part of PVF and allowing me to do both,” Hentz said last week.
The schedule for the fledgling league included 24 matches for each team, but the start and finish was not even. Atlanta, for example, played more matches early than most. San Diego, which started much later, had three matches last week while the Vibe were hanging out.
Atlanta is the No. 1 seed after finishing 19-5, three full games ahead of the second-seeded Omaha Supernovas (16-8).
Atlanta plays the fourth-seeded Grand Rapids Rise (12-12) at 6 p.m. Central in the first semifinal Wednesday in Omaha’s CHI Health Center. They split their four matches this season.
In the second semi, Omaha plays San Diego (13-11). They also split their four matches.
Both matches will be shown on the CBS Sports Network with Paul Sunderland and Holly McPeak on the call.
The inaugural championship match is Saturday and the winning franchise gets a $1 million prize that will be split up among the players and team staff.
ATLANTA VS. GRAND RAPIDS: The Vibe won 10 of their last 11 matches before beginning their extended break.
Outside hitter Leah Edmond is second in the league with 381 kills. Hentz leads the PVF with 373 digs.
The Vibe has three players in the top five in hitting percentage. Magdalena Jehlářová is second at .459, Anna Lazareva is fourth at .426 and Shelly Fanning is fifth at .414.
Rise outside Claire Chaussee leads the PVF in kills with 395 and teammate Emilya Dimitrova is third with 371. Grand Rapids won its last two matches to end a three-match skid.
OMAHA VS. SAN DIEGO: Omaha will have a huge home-court advantage because the Supernovas have attracted the most fans in the PVF by far this season. But while Omaha is coming a regular-season-ending, five-set loss to Grand Rapids, the Mojo have won three in a row and 12 of 18.
San Diego outside Lindsey Vander Weide is the final regular-season player of the week. She’s the third Mojo player to win the honor in the last five weeks, preceded by setter Nootsara Tomkom on April 16 and opposite Willow Johnson on April 30.
San Diego won all three of its matches last week to not only get into the PVF semifinals, but clinch the third seed. Vander Weide totaled 51 kills and hit .490 in those victories, and had 23 digs, a block and an ace.
A HAPPY HENTZ: We featured the former Stanford libero almost two years ago after she played in Athletes Unlimited and was with Team USA at Volleyball Nations League.
Hentz is really glad to play pro volleyball in America.
“For me it’s been a real joy and the thing that surprised me the most is the fan support and the way that we’ve gotten information about the league out there,” Hentz said. “It’s been really exciting and there’s been a lot of parity in the league. It feels like everyone’s beaten everyone at some point, which is really neat because teams came on board at different times.”
Hentz got in a tremendous amount of work in Anaheim, but, of course, did not make the 14-player USA roster that headed to Brazil for the first leg of Volleyball Nations League. She’ll rejoin the USA team after this week’s playoffs.
“I’m awfully excited and also just nervous, because this is history in the making,” Hentz said. “And you always want to be on the right side of history.
“The overwhelming feeling is just one of gratitude, to be able to stay here in the U.S. and compete in front of family and friends and alongside other Americans. It’s been really cool to be a part of.”
