NORFOLK, Va. – After a 3-1 victory on Thursday night to start conference play, Old Dominion volleyball earned a 3-0 win over Sun Belt foe Marshall on Friday night at the ODU Volleyball Center.
With the victory, ODU evens the all-time series at 3-3. It also marks the first time in program history the Monarchs have started conference play 2-0.
"It feels great, but as Coach Ricky Rahne says, it feels good to be 1-0 today," head coach Fred Chao said afterwards. "Yesterday was a really good step for us, today was a bigger step for us. To be able to establish our level of play and know that it's good enough to beat a team like Marshall. They're a great team, they beat us a lot last year. So I know we're making improvements and it's just good to see it pay off."
ODU 3, Marshall 0
Ashley Peroe and Myah Conway scored 11 kills each to lead the Monarchs (7-8, 2-0 Sun Belt). Bailey Burgess was next with eight kills and Terea Atilano added six kills with 32 assists. The setter from San Diego, California served two aces and Ashlynn Belcher also served up a pair. Tessa Mati, Conway and Burgess recorded two blocks each. Jamie Bissmeyer finished with a team-high eight digs, Atilano followed with seven and Peroe tallied six.
ODU outhit The Herd (6-7, 0-2 Sun Belt), .324 to .271. The Monarchs also led their opponents in points (56.0-42.0), kills (45-36), service aces (7-2), and assists (40-33). Both sides made four blocks and the visitors ended up with more digs (43-30).
Marshall jumped ahead 7-5 early in Set One, but a solo block form Mati evened the score at 10-10. Burgess then scored a kill before a Marshall ball-handling error gave the Monarchs a 12-10 lead. With the teams locked at 21-21, Peroe put away a ball from Atilano to give ODU control. Another Marshall ball-handling error and a kill by Hailey Duncan pushed ODU's advantage to 24-21. After The Herd earned the next point, Peroe found an opening and the Monarchs secured a 25-22 decision.
ODU held a narrow 9-8 lead in the second set when Peroe assisted Atilano. The kill opened up a 5-0 run for the Monarchs and the team never relinquished the lead from there. Bissmeyer set up Conway for a kill and ODU earned four unanswered points to pull away, 20-12. Burgess and Conway denied a Marshall attack to secure the set point at 25-17.
The Monarchs raced out to a 6-1 lead to start Set Three, but The Herd trimmed their deficit down to 13-11. However, consecutive errors by Marshall and back-to-back kills from Peroe and Duncan allowed the home team to increase its lead to 17-11. Both teams then traded points for the remainder of the set and a 25-18 final gave ODU the match.
"I think it's really just their mindset and their attitude coming out," Chao said of the team's quick start to the third set. "That's really all we're talking about in the course of these matches and how we're playing them. Trying to recognize when we have a little bit of lull there and really just re-engaging them in that battle in the competition and making sure that they enjoy that it's competitive. It shouldn't be something that we just execute and execute and that it comes easy to us. Because it won't always come easy and then if we don't expect to be challenged, then we get thrown off our game. So really we want them to expect to be challenged all the time."
Up Next
ODU continues league play on the road next week as the team heads to Statesboro, Georgia to face Georgia Southern inside Hanner Fieldhouse. Friday's series opener is slated for a 6 p.m. start and Saturday's match will feature a 1 p.m. first serve. Both matches will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will also be available.
Volleyball Defeats Marshall in Straight Sets to Start Conference Play 2-0
