NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball split its Sun Belt Conference series with Appalachian State as the Monarchs fell 3-1 on Saturday afternoon at the ODU Volleyball Center.
"The one and one weekend versus App State is not surprising," said head coach Fred Chao. "We played well Friday night and forced them out of their game. Today they were the better team. They played well and forced us out of our game. In the first meeting, we handled the first touch well and converted for points. Today our opponents were more aggressive and we didn't control the first touch as well. We are still working on stringing performances together and hope to get there sooner than later."
App State 3, ODU 1
Teresa Atilano recorded a 26-assist, 12-dig double-double while adding two kills, one ace and three blocks. Myah Conway scored a team-high 16 kills to go along with one block and four digs. Ashley Peroe followed her with nine kills, one block and eight digs. Anna Burkhardt finished the match with 20 digs and six assists, and Bailey Burgess had two blocks with six digs, three kills, one assist and one ace.
The Mountaineers (14-9, 7-5 Sun Belt) used early runs of 4-0 and 5-0 to build a 9-2 lead in the first set. Atilano served an ace to help trim the App State lead to 15-10. After the visitors earned the next point, a Burgess kill opened a 5-0 run that got the Monarchs (9-14, 4-6 Sun Belt) back within a point at 16-15. Down 22-19 late, an App State attack error and a block by Atilano and Burgess made it 22-21. Unfortunately, the next three points went to the Mountaineers.
The second set saw App State jump out to a 16-4 advantage. ODU was unable to put together any significant runs and the guests claimed another set at 25-14. Set Three was a battle from start to finish. Peroe put away a ball from Burkhardt and Burgess followed with an ace to put ODU up 24-19. The next four points went to App State, but a serve was too long as ODU won set point at 25-23.
Set Four was close early on with App State ahead, 6-5. The Mountaineers then used an 8-1 swing to create separation at 14-6. That proved to be too large of a deficit for the Monarchs and a 25-13 final gave the set and match to App State.
Up Next
The Monarchs have their final road trip of the regular season next weekend when the team travels to Atlanta for a pair of conference matches at Georgia State.
Volleyball Falls in Four Sets to App State
