MORGANTOWN, W.VA. – A Bailey Burgess service ace gave Old Dominion volleyball a 16-15 in the fifth set, but North Dakota State won the next three points as the Monarchs dropped their final match of the Mountaineer Invitational 3-2 on Friday.
ODU went 2-1 at the Invitational, which was held at the WVU Coliseum. The Monarchs earned a pair of 3-0 wins over West Virginia and Robert Morris on Thursday.
North Dakota State 3, ODU 2
The first set remained close until the Bison (8-3) put together a 5-0 run to pull ahead, 15-11. An Alice Munari kill got the Monarchs (7-6) back to within 17-16, but NDSU took off with another four-straight points. ODU was unable to catch them from there as the Bison won the set, 25-18.
In the second set, Elisa Maggi put away a ball from Teresa Atilano to open up a 6-0 run that gave ODU the lead at 11-7. NDSU served an ace to pull to within 15-14, but the Monarchs won five of the next six points to jump ahead, 20-15. A pair of late kills by Atilano and Munari secured the set at 25-21 as ODU evened the match at a set apiece.
ODU trailed 11-7 in the third set, but the Monarchs would pull even at 14-14 thanks to back-to-back kills from Bailey Burgess and Munari. With the score knotted at 20-20, another Munari kill, a Kate Kilpatrick service ace and a pair of NDSU attack errors put the Monarchs in front, 24-20. A couple of ODU errors gifted the Bison some points, but Atilano set up Myah Conway for a kill and the Monarchs took the overall lead with a 25-22 decision.
NDSU led the fourth set from start to finish as the Bison built an early 11-5 lead. A late 5-1 charge by the Monarchs cut the deficit to 21-18, but NDSU sent the match to a fifth set with another 25-18 total.
The Monarchs were behind for most of the deciding set, but caught up to the Bison at 8-8 as Atilano had a successful attack and NDSU committed a ball handling error. The teams traded points before NDSU went up 14-12, but Munari and Maggi kept ODU alive with a pair of kills. Maggi then tied the set again at 15-15 and Burgess followed with an ace for ODU's first lead since the third set, but the Bison rattled off three-straight points to bring the match to a close.
ODU had three players finish with double-digit kills: Conway led the way with 18, Maggi scored 14 and Munari ended the match with 12. Atilano finished the day with 50 assists, her second-highest total of the season, and added nine digs, four blocks, three kills and one ace to her totals. Burgess served four aces with nine kills and seven blocks. On the back row, Conway paced the Monarchs with 12 digs while Munari and Kilpatrick were right behind her with 10 each.
Up Next
ODU has its final non-conference match of the season this Tuesday when the Monarchs host Liberty for a 5 p.m. match at the ODU Volleyball Center.
ODU Concludes Mountaineer Invitational With 3-2 Loss to North Dakota State
