Valkyries Fall in Three Sets to San Diego; Slip to 10-14
MLV Orlando Valkyries

Valkyries Fall in Three Sets to San Diego; Slip to 10-14

Published on April 19, 2026 under Major League Volleyball (MLV)
Orlando Valkyries News Release


ORLANDO, Fla. It was a déjà vu performance for the Orlando Valkyries against the San Diego Mojo, as for the second straight match Orlando lost in straight sets, falling to a 10-14 record on the year.

Coming into tonight, Orlando (10-13) trailed San Diego (12-11) by a game and a half for one of the final two spots in the Major League Volleyball playoffs, held in Frisco, Texas. San Diego, who started the season 1-6 and have reversed it to a 13-11 record, completely controlled the tempo from the opening set. "Credit to San Diego, there's a reason why they've had the turnaround that they've had," head coach Amy Pauly stated postgame. "Their middles played really well against us and made it difficult for us to get things going."

San Diego took a commanding 2-0 lead thanks to outside hitter Grace Loberg accounting for 10 of San Diego's first 25 kills. Wanting to start faster in the third, Orlando went for a different lineup change, similar to the one on Thursday night, this time inserting Adanna Schad, Charitie Luper, Natalie Foster, Bre Kelley, Zoe Weatherington, Hannah Pukis and Teodora Pusic. The changes would see improvement, as Orlando got out to a 12-9 lead before San Diego went on a 7-2 run to make it 16-14. After San Diego took the lead and the momentum, Orlando wasn't able to rebound.

"We've had to go through so many different lineups over the course of the season, and it's been frustrating how it's been recently. When you see the type of depth we have, where you saw Adanna and Zoe coming off the bench and giving you some point scoring juice tonight, we have the talent, it just hasn't been clicking like we've liked it to." Not only did Adanna and Zoe provide some juice tonight, one steady presence has been Natalie Foster, who continues to make her case for middle blocker of the year, as she finished the night hitting .700 (7/10), and notching one more ace to get her to 50 on the season. She's also had four straight matches hitting over .500 when she has more than 10 swings.

Even with falling to 10-14 and not being where they want to be, Orlando is still on a mission to battle all the way until the final game of the season. "At the end of the day, we've still got a chance to get in this thing, so we'll regroup, get back after it and get us in a position to be ready to go against Indy," said coach Pauly.

Notes:

Hannah Maddux and Natalie Foster both led the Valkyries with 10 points

San Diego outblocked Orlando 12-3

Natalie Foster notched her 50th ace of the season

Zoe Weatherington (7) and Adanna Schad (4) both set new career highs in kills for the Valkyries this season

Next Match: Orlando Valkyries (10-14) vs. Indy Ignite (18-5) | Thursday, April 23, 7:00 p.m. ET | Addition Financial Arena| ROKU Sports Channel

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Major League Volleyball Stories from April 19, 2026


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central