CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Old Dominion (7-6, 4-4 C-USA) volleyball team dropped a 3-0 match to Charlotte on Monday afternoon (25-15, 25-23, 25-14) at Halton Arena.
The Monarchs were led by Madeline Rudd, who swung for 10 kills, while adding two digs and a block. The redshirt freshman hit a career-best .261%. Meanwhile, Alessia Sgherza followed with six kills and produced four digs. Freshman Jordan Daniel led ODU with nine digs.
"It was a tough series for us," explained head coach Fred Chao. "We had more patches of better play today, but Charlotte was able to respond and it was difficult to gain any real control of the rallies."
After picking up the first point of the game, Charlotte (11-4, 9-3 C-USA) led for the entire first set. The 49ers went on a 7-1 run following ODU's first point to take a 7-2 advantage over the Monarchs. ODU attempted to fight back, but Charlotte's 14 kills in the opening set was too much to overcome.
In ODU's closest set of the series, the teams traded points early on and two consecutive ODU kills gave the Monarchs a 9-8 lead. The 49ers quickly responded, evening up the match again as the two continued to trade points. With the second set knotted, 16-16, Charlotte used an 8-5 scoring run to jump ahead, 20-16 down the stretch. However, back-to-back Rudd kills put ODU back within one, 24-23, and forced a 49er timeout. Coming out of the break, Sydney Rowan fired off a kill to give the 49ers a 25-23 edge to win the second set of the day.
The 49ers opened the third frame with a 4-0 scoring run. Olivia De Jesus swatted down a kill to put ODU on the board. ODU continued to fight back from a seven-point deficit with four-straight points, two of them off Rudd kills, another off a Madelyn Grunza kill and the fourth via an Ashley Peroe service ace. The 49ers quickly responded with a 6-1 run to open back up its lead, 16-8. The 49ers went on a 9-4 run from there, winning the third set, 25-14.
Up Next
ODU will wrap up regular season play with home matches against Marshall (March 21-22) and Western Kentucky (March 26-27) at the ODU Volleyball Center.
Volleyball Drops Match at Charlotte, 3-0
