By Annie Walker
2 17 2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Fury (2-8) beat the league leaders, the Vegas Thrill (7-3) 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 22-25, 25-21) on Monday evening. Both Fury middle blockers had standout performances in the team win. Kaley Rammelsberg had seven kills with a .438 efficiency, and a franchise record five aces. Abby Walker tallied eight kills, with a .412 efficiency, three blocks, and two aces. The Fury out-killed the Thrill 61-46 and had seven aces to Vegas’ three.
SET ONE
Columbus and Vegas scrapped point-for-point early on, tied 5-5. Wilma Rivera got middles involved in the offense early. Abby Walker had five kills on six attempts, hitting .833 in the first set. Columbus took a two-point lead 7-5 and kept a steady lead throughout the set. Megan Lush (four kills, .333) and Izabella Rapacz (six kills, .308) produced from both pins. With an ace from Walker, Fury took the lead 16-11. Thrill fought back to minimize the Fury league, but a Rammelsberg kill kept Fury ahead, 19-17. The Fury won the set 25-20.
SET TWO
The teams were tied 7-7 when Rammelsberg started a four-ace run. A trickle over the tape brought the score to 8-7. Two more aces tagged the endline and the Fury led 10-7. When she returned to the front row, Rammelsberg tallied back to back kills to extend the Fury lead 18-13. Vegas’ Charity Luper scored a couple kills and the Thrill shrunk the point deficit 21-19. With a service error by Vegas, Fury led 23-20. Columbus sealed the second set 25-20 with an out-of-system kill by Raina Terry.
SET THREE
Vegas got on Columbus early with an ace by Cameron Hannah to take the lead 4-3. Luper tallied her first block and another kill, paired with a couple kills from Allison Mayfield and an ace from Berkeley Oblad to give the Thrill a 10-6 lead. Vegas challenged a centerline fault and were up 16-11. Fury were down 20-13 when they took a timeout, but came back in a four-point run with a won challenge to bring the score to 20-17. Service errors from Terry and Rammelsberg set the score to 23-18. Two kills from Lush and two blocks from Rapacz kept the Fury close at 24-22, but ultimately Columbus fell to Vegas 25-23.
SET FOUR
Lush grabbed the first kill of the set and Terry began to score on off-speed shots. A setter dump from Rivera gave Fury a 7-5 lead, but it was a point-for-point battle after that. Tied 11-11, Thrill went on the three point run and began to separate. A block from Rapacz tied the game up again 18-18. After a kill from Rapacz, Columbus created a lead that they sustained till the end. A kill from Terry secured the Fury win at 25-21.
UP NEXT
The Columbus Fury head to Van Andel Arena to take on the Grand Rapids Rise [4-6] on Thursday, February 20 at 7 p.m. ET.
For tickets please call 614-380-FURY(3879) or visit columbusfury.com
For the latest on the Columbus Fury, follow the Fury on Facebook, Instagram, and on X @ColumbusFury or visit at columbusfury.com
Columbus Fury vs. Vegas Thrill Post-Game Quotes
HEAD COACH ÁNGEL PÉREZ
Opening Statement …
“You know, good win for us. I think our first three-point win. That’s always good against a really good Vegas team, which was leading the Pro Volleyball Federation. So, I think it speaks highly about the group the way that they have handled adversity, and kept believing in themselves, believing in what we’re trying to build and taste like this makes all that sacrifice worth it. So happy with the way we came out to battle, we were fearless, not Fierce less. Like, we’ve been speaking about we had a service plan, which we executed pretty good. We got their best outside hitter out of the game as fast as we could, and I think it helped us in the long run. Again, Kayley [Rammelsberg] with her serve but not only her, everybody was pressuring from the service line. So, I thought we were good. I thought we handled our mistakes pretty well and the inside goals that we have as a team, the three sets that we want, we achieved that goal. We have been speaking about producing points by ourselves and earning points. Our goal is to create 19. We had 23, 21 and 20 in three sets that we won. We had 16 in the one that we lost. We have been speaking about trying to be smart and keeping the errors as close to six. We were at eight. That said we lost the set that we won. We were seven, six and seven. So, again credit to their hard work. Hopefully, you know, this gives us belief, which is the last thing we should lose. It’s still a young season and we’re gonna go back to the drawing board and see what we didn’t do as well as we were, we wanted to and keep working on it. We have another tough game here on Thursday. So, a quick turnaround. We’ll try to be as healthy possible for that match.”
On serving strategies and getting Alisha Glass Childress out of the game …
“I think that was our mentality coming into the game. We spoke that, that team runs how Alicia runs, and we wanted to make her run a 10K during the game. The idea was not necessarily to get aces. The idea was to make the game uncomfortable for them and I think we created that. The aces came along the way, but I thought we were really disciplined with the way we pressured with our serve and put Alisha in a difficult situation. So, we knew that coming into the game and I’m happy, we executed the game plan, and it worked out.”
On Abby Walker taking a knock and the physicality of the game …
“Luckily, it was just a scare at the moment. She feels good. No problem with her vision, no problem with her head. So, we’ll see how she wakes up tomorrow, but luckily for us, hopefully, it was just a scare, but I thought today we were playing like a boxing match. You know, we got like four balls driven to the face, Kayley [Rammelsberg] had two in one set, Izzy [Rapacz] had one in blocks. So again, it speaks about resilience, it speaks about grit, it speaks about tenacity of the group and I hope we can continue to build on that.”
On Rammelsberg’s record …
“That doesn’t surprise me because she has been working hard on bettering her serve for the last 20 days and results don’t happen right away and one day next to the other results take time and slowly we’re getting to see the results are starting to come for her. So that doesn’t surprise me. They way she’s been serving, she’s been serving like that in practice to our receivers. So, it’s a matter of staying confident, and a game is just like another practice. So, congrats on the record and hopefully six on Thursday.”
On this being a turning point …
“Yeah, absolutely. I think we always keep the good energy. I mean it’s literally amazing. We have been tested from the beginning, and I think our main thing is stay together. Go through the process and we’re going to come up with the answers.”
WILMA RIVERA, #5, S
On feeding young teammates …
“I love that. It just makes it so easy. Like Kaylee [Rammelsberg] just all the time talking about how hungry she is, same with Izabella [Rapacz]. They make it easy to feed them.”
On Megan Lush …
“We love Megan over here. So, I actually played with Megan at Penn State, so I knew her a long time ago and she just makes everything so easy. She’s a great leader. She’s always talking in the right spot. Again, she doesn’t always get all the kills, but she gets all the other stuff. She just makes it like so easy and better for everybody, so it’s a pleasure to have her on the corner.”
KALEY RAMMELSBERG, #18, MB
On being more comfortable …
“I’m definitely a lot more comfortable. Just like getting in practicing, getting reps with the setters and working on our blocking, staying positive about the whole thing, and not getting down and just having trust in my teammates. It’s just like trust and hard work definitely have helped me become more comfortable.”
COURTESY COLUMBUS FURY COMMUNICATIONS
