NORFOLK, Va. – It was another tough outing for Old Dominion volleyball as the Monarchs fell 3-0 to Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon at the ODU Volleyball Center.
With the loss, ODU falls to 9-9 overall and 1-3 against Sun Belt opponents.
"I feel a lot better about today's match than yesterday's 3-1 loss, mainly because through the ups and downs, we stayed tough today," head coach Fred Chao said afterwards. "The people we count on to play hard, they kept playing hard and I think it gave the younger players some freedom to play as well without the burden and the weight that they have been carrying."
Georgia Southern 3, ODU 0
The Eagles (13-2, 3-1) established an early 5-1 lead to open the match, but a service error and a kill from Teresa Atilano cut that lead to 5-3. The visitors were ahead 23-17 late, but a Myah Conway kill opened up a 5-0 run that got the Monarchs back to within a point. However, an ODU attack error sealed the first set for GS at 25-23.
GS scored five unanswered to start the second set and used another couple of 5-0 runs to pull away, 19-6. ODU finally strung together some points thanks to a couple of Eagle errors and a block by Alice Munari and Olivia De Jesus, but the home team was still behind, 20-10. Georgia Southern would go on to a 25-15 tally to lead two sets to none at intermission.
A De Jesus kill and back-to-back Conway kills knotted the third set at 3-3. After another tie at 4-4, GS earned eight of the next 10 points to pull away, 12-6. A late block by Conway and De Jesus trimmed the Eagle lead to 22-18, but three consecutive Georgia Southern kills brought the match to a close.
Conway led the offense with 11 kills and added two blocks and four digs to her match totals. Atilano, who came into the day needing 10 assists to reach 3,000 for her career, ended up with 29 on the day. She also led the back row with 16 digs for her fifth-straight double-double and 10th of the season. At the net, De Jesus recorded four blocks, two of them solo.
On Atilano's impact, Chao added, "She has been there from the very first point. She played the first point of our program's history and she's still playing now. It's incredible what she's been able to do, and she has developed with the program. That in itself is hard because every year, every recruiting class we've gotten better and better and better. But she's been able to stay on pace to keep getting better and better, and that's why she's still on the court."
Up Next
ODU is home again next weekend as the Monarchs welcome James Madison for a Sun Belt series on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 6-7.
Volleyball Defeated by Georgia Southern, 3-0
