By Michelle Richardson
3 14 2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Fury (5-11) swept the Vegas Thrill (7-9) (25-22, 25-21, 25-23) Friday evening for their second sweep of the season. Izabella Rapacz had a 20 kill night, attacking .333, with eight digs and one block. The Fury attacked at a .238 efficiency on the match, while the Thrill attacked at a .159 efficiency. The Fury out-killed the Thrill by four (46-42) but were out-dug by four (59-55).
SET ONE
With three attacking errors from Vegas’ Hannah Maddux, the Fury got an early 4-2 lead. Vegas tied up the set at 6-6, but the Fury separated again with a 6-1 run to bring the score to 14-9. Back-to-back Rapacz kills brought the Fury ahead 17-10. Vegas tried to close the gap, getting within two points at 18-16. The Fury were the first to 20 with a Rapacz kill and an Abby Walker ace. Rapacz scored the final kill to end the set 25-22.
SET TWO
A Rapacz kill and block gave the Fury a 4-1 lead. Going on a 6-2 run, the Fury were the first to 10, and the Thrill trailed by five. Vegas came back to tie the set at 15-1,5, and it was a back-and-forth battle from there. Kaley Rammelsberg had a solo block at 17-16. A Rapacz kill set the Fury ahead 21-20, and she tallied another kill to bring the Fury to set point. Rapacz got the set winning kill, finishing the set 25-21.
SET THREE
The Fury scored their first two points off of a Walker block and kill. An 8-2 run once again led the Fury to be first to 10 with a seven-point lead. The Fury offense came alive with kills from both pins. After a Raina Terry kill at 17-11, the Thrill came back on a five-point run, trailing 16-17. The set was tied at 18-18. Kills from Kaylee Cox and Morgan Lewis gave the Fury momentum at 22-19. The set was once again tied at 22-22 and 23-23. A Walker block gave the Fury set point, and Columbus won the match 25-23 after the Thrill were called out-of-rotation.
COLUMBUS FURY AGAINST VEGAS THRILL POST-GAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH ÁNGEL PÉREZ
Opening Statement …
“Yeah, you know, we spoke pre-game and I told you that I thought that we had to put three or four days of good practice in a row and I think It showed up to, you know, I think it’s the first time in the year that we have met our internal goals amongst us and they don’t know it yet but I saw the numbers the first time in the year that we accomplished three of the goals that we proposed for our team. You know we’re talking about getting 19 points by ourselves on all the sets. We produced more than that. We talked about keeping our errors as limited as six on average, we average four and a half. Today we talked about being aggressive in our serve, we had two aces, put them in difficulty, only five mistakes. So, all those internal things we talked about winning the outer situations. We won that, also we had better attacking percentage, we were better on block defense on those situations. So, the goals that we put out to achieve today, we did and the result is there. Credit to the players that all the hard work they put in and today our game plan worked. We made a couple of adjustments and they paid off for us, so happy with the victory, refreshing. And hopefully, we can continue.”
On getting Hannah Maddux out of the game and Vegas’s rotations …
“Yeah, yeah. I think like we spoke. That was our plan from the start trying to get Hannah [Maddux] out of the game as fast as possible. Uh, we believe she’s their best attacker when she’s in good rhythm. So, we wanted to avoid that. Uh, so from the start we went at her short deep side to side, make her move, make her work and what about that, make her make points, you know. So, we did a good job with not just with her serve, but then putting a good block for her for her to make a lot of errors, trying to search hands, trying to search things that she’s not used to. So, it was great for us to get her out. But getting her out didn’t win the match for us. We gotta remain aggressive with her serve. We gotta remain pushing Alicia [Childress] to run the whole court, which was our game plan today, and I thought we did a phenomenal job. Uh, they made some subs that hurt us. We got good touches on her when he really mattered and we dog her when you’re really matter. And you know, that’s it seeing them making changes. Their trend has been that through the season. They make multiple changes. They rotate a lot. The players, we spoke about that before the game and, you know, tell the tendencies of everybody and be ready for any sub, they would make, but of course, it makes us happy that with our game plan, we force them to do something different.”
On the game ending in a rotation fault …
“So, I think it’s first time I’ve witnessed a game finish within our rotation. I’ve witness sets finish out of a rotation. Not a game. Uh, I still don’t know exactly what, the outer rotation one, I gotta go watch film and replay it in our heads, we were talking about it right now. If it was like, if they’re completely out of rotation or was there a player out of rotation? But I guess when the head referee explained it to the setter, what was the call, the center agreed that she was out of rotation. So, I gotta go back to the film because I don’t know exactly who was out of rotation, but lucky for us.”
KAYLEE COX, #8, OH
On the win …
“Yeah, I mean I thought we served really aggressively, and I think that helped us in the long run of getting the team out of system and then playing good block defense. I think we did a really good job of in transition offense, and I think that’s why we won the match, is playing a defense and then transitioning out of it.”
On Vegas’s subs …
“No, I mean, it gives us confidence. It gives us confidence that you were able to stop different hitters and they’re having to make different changes. And we have to adjust these different hitters coming in. And like you said, we put up a good game plan and we’re prepared for anybody to come into the match and we have our scout down to a t. And so just anybody that’s coming into the match, we’re going to know what their tendencies are and how to stop them.”
KATE GEORGIADES, #7, L
On the win …
“Yeah, we’ve just been focusing on limiting our errors, and then we’ve been playing mini games to five and I think whenever the game got tight that really paid off for us because we’re used to being in tight situations. And I remember looking, when it was 22-22 in the third set, just being like, all right game to three, like we’ve been doing this all week so it should be easy for us.”
On Vegas’s subs …
“Yeah. I think like she said, it just gives you confidence and kind of reassurance that you’re doing all the right things like the scouting report is telling us to do but at the same time at this level everyone’s really good. So, whoever gets subbed in is still like capable of taking over the match. So, I think like he said, we luckily got a lot of good touches at the end once we made some adjustments. But I think it’s just knowing like, okay, check, we got her out of the game, like we did a good job of that and it’s on to the next.”
On colliding with Kaylee during a rally …
“I mean, that’s also something you’ve been working on in practices, not only getting really good touches, but making playable touches. So, I’m just thankful that both of those were playable touches and it didn’t turn out how we ended up on the ground together, but, um, I’m just like, really shout out to all of our team defense.”
UP NEXT
The Columbus Fury head to Fishers Event Center to take on the Indy Ignite [8-8] on Thursday, March 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
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