NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion (7-7, 4-5 C-USA) volleyball team dropped a five-set match (25-20, 25-17, 25-22, 25-15, 15-9) to Marshall (9-4, 7-4 C-USA) on Sunday afternoon at the ODU Volleyball Center.
ODU put three players in double-digit kills, led by Alessia Sgherza who knocked down 15. Redshirt sophomore Hailey Duncan compiled a season-high 13 kills and hit .333.
"For the most part, I think we played really good volleyball," expressed head coach Fred Chao. "We were able to win strings of points that mattered for a long period of time but at the end of the match, we couldn't better the ball when Marshall was serving tougher. When they got the ball, they were able to capitalize off of that and through the course of the rally, we ended up making more mistakes than Marshall did. I can't be disappointed with how we played, it was just mistimed errors."
Marshall opened the first frame ahead of ODU, 3-0. The Monarchs got on the board via back-to-back Herd errors. The set continued to go back-and-forth until Alessia Sgherza delivered a kill which opened a 3-0 scoring run to lead 19-16. The Herd would cut the lead back to two, 20-18, but the Monarchs compiled a 5-2 run to close out the first set on top, 25-20.
The second set went in favor of Marshall, 25-17. ODU and the Herd traded points early in the set, keeping the game tied, 13-13, but Marshall broke away following a 12-4 run to close out the second frame.
ODU fell behind early in the third set, 4-2, however ODU got back within one via two consecutive Marshall errors. ODU quickly evened the set, 8-8 and a 4-1 Monarch scoring run forced a Marshall timeout. The Herd would come out of the break to tie the game, 14-14. Both teams continued to trade points until ODU reeled off a 5-1 scoring run to win the third set, 25-22.
Marshall jumped out to an early 12-7 lead in the fourth set, forcing an ODU timeout. The Monarchs came out of the break clawing back, but Marshall's sizeable lead and a 13-8 scoring run to close the fourth frame would give the Herd a 25-15 win to force a fifth set.
The Herd opened the decisive fifth set with a 7-2 run. A Sgherza kill would spark a 6-3 ODU scoring to trim the deficit, 10-8. ODU recorded back-to-back errors, which forced Chao to utilize a timeout trailing, 12-8. The Herd compiled two kills and an ODU attack error to close out the fifth set, 15-9.
Defensively, libero Jordan Daniel led the charge with 20 digs. Teresa Atilano recorded eight digs along with 48 assists. The San Diego, California native also matched her season-best five kills and hit .375. Olivia De Jesus matched her season-best six blocks.
Up Next
The two sides play again at 1 p.m. on Monday at the ODU Volleyball Center.
Volleyball Falls to Marshall, 3-2
