Pornpun wins the duel with Nootsara and takes the Valkyries to the playoffs

A duel between arguably the best setters in the Pro Volleyball Federation league, Pornpun Guedpard and Nootsara Tomkom, who both made history with the Thai national team, was the highlight of the tournament’s 15^th week of the regular season.

The encounter happened on Friday, in Columbus, and had a Pornpun-led Orlando Valkyries walking away with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-17) victory over the home team Columbus Fury, which signed the legendary Nootsara last month.

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Pornpun, 31, and Nootsara, 39, were together at the Thai national team for most of the last decade, helping them win four medals in the Asian Championship and four golds at the Southeast Asian Games. Friday’s match marked the first meeting of the Asian stars in the Pro Volleyball Federation, as while Pornpun has been with the Valkyries since the start of the season, Nootsara only joined the Fury a few weeks ago.

The two setters had solid performances in the match, with Pornpun delivering 37 assists, getting eight digs and scoring one point off a kill, and Nootsara producing 24 assists, five digs and one ace. The two were watched by Thai national team libero Piyanut Pannoy, who recently completed her season with Atlanta in the country’s League One Volleyball League and made the trip to Columbus to meet her teammates.

With the victory, the third-placed Valkyries got to 14 wins and ten losses in the standings and secured a spot among the four teams that will compete in the postseason. The Fury sit at the bottom of the standings with eight wins and 16 losses.

Valkyries’ star Puerto Rican opposite Brittany Abercrombie led her team’s victory with 20 points (19 kills, one block). With that, she set a new record for kills registered in a single PVF season, with 397.

With 15 and 13 points respectively, middle blockers Natalie Foster and Kaz Brown also had solid performances for the Valkyries, while middle blocker Janice Leao topped the charts for the home team with nine.

Before falling to the Valkyries on Friday, the Fury had defeated the San Diego Mojo 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 22-25, 25-19) at home on Wednesday.

Vibe beat the Supernovas

The 15^th week of the regular season also had a duel between the two best-ranked teams in the league, which ended with the second-placed Atlanta Vibe beating league leaders Omaha Supernovas 3-0 (27-25, 25-19, 25-18) on the road on Saturday. With that, the team from Georgia extended their winning streak to 11 matches, setting a new record in the league. The result also closed the gap between the teams, with the Supernovas staying ahead with 17 wins and seven losses and the Vibe trailing with 17 victories and eight defeats.

Two days earlier, on Thursday, the Supernovas had defeated the Grand Rapids Rise 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 26-24) at home. Three other matches were held over the week, with the Vegas Thrill beating the Indy Ignite 3-2 (16-25, 27-25, 25-16, 29-31, 15-12) on the road on Thursday, the Rise overcoming the Ignite 3-1 (25-27, 25-21, 25-18, 25-22) at home on Friday and the Mojo defeating the Thrill 3-2 (25-23, 25-18, 21-25, 19-25, 15-10) in California on Saturday.

At the end of the week, the standings have the Supernovas (17-7) in first place, followed by the Vibe (17-8), the Valkyries (14-10), the Ignite (12-12), the Rise (11-14), the Mojo (9-15), the Thrill (9-15) and the Fury (8-16).

The 16^th and penultimate week of the regular season will have three matches on Friday, one on Saturday and three on Sunday.

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