NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball opened its Quest for the Crown tournament, presented by Hilton Norfolk The Main, with a pair of 3-0 wins over Marist and UTSA on Friday, Aug. 30 inside the ODU Volleyball Center.
“I’m really pleased with our first day,” said ODU Head Coach Fred Chao. “We have a more balanced team capable of high-level play. Our challenge will be to play at level consistently. Today showed we could shift around our offense and lean on different players throughout a match. It was also nice to recognize Myah Conway’s 1,000 kill achievement that she earned last season. We’re looking forward to the match with Virginia [tomorrow].”
Conway, a senior from Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, became the first player in program history to reach the career milestone when the team had its final Sun Belt series of the 2023 regular season at Southern Miss last November. Joined by her parents at midcourt, Conway was presented with a commemorative ball before the start of ODU’s match versus UTSA.
ODU 3, Marist 0
The Monarchs (2-0) began their 2024 campaign with a 3-0 victory over Marist by a final of 25-15, 25-12, and 25-17 on Friday morning.
In the first set, the teams played it close early as a kill for Jamison White of Marist brought the Red Foxes (0-1) to within a point at 7-6. ODU responded with a brief 5-1 flurry to take a 12-7 lead on an ace by Emma Schelah. Marist pulled to 13-10 on a Nikki Patton kill, but the Monarchs answered with a 12-1 run capped by block assists from Schelah and Conway to lead 22-11.
The second set saw Marist go up 9-8 following a kill from Alyssa White, but ODU turned on the jets and ripped off a 10-1 run in response to take a 19-9 lead after a Marist attack error. After trading points, the Monarchs closed the second set on a 5-1 burst as a Schelah block gave the hosts a 25-12 second set.
An ODU attack error in the third set evened the score at 9-9, but the Monarchs corrected course with a 13-3 run as three straight Bryanna Jones kills put ODU up 22-12 en route to the 25-17 final set win.
A fairly balanced attacked was led by LeeAnne Lowery’s eight kills as the redshirt junior from Verona, New York swung for a .636 hitting percentage. Hailee Blankenship added seven kills and six service aces, Conway also had seven kills to go along with five block, and Alice Munari chipped in a six-kill effort. Ashlynn Belcher and Elisabeth Levick ended up with 16 and 13 assists, respectively, and Kate Kilpatrick paced the back row with 14 digs.
The Monarchs combined to hit for .443 in the matched and edged the Red Foxes in points (54-33), kills (37-31), assists (34-31), aces (9-0), blocks (8-2) and digs (28-23).
ODU 3, UTSA 0
After William & Mary bested UTSA 3-1 in the second match of the day and Virginia secured a straight-set victory over Marist, ODU returned for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Roadrunners (2-0).
The first set was a deadlock until a block by Conway and Schelah opened up a 3-0 push that gave the Monarchs control at 19-16. UTSA couldn’t recover from there, and ODU claimed the set point at 25-20.
Set Two resembled the first as Elisa Maggi put away a ball from Levick to knot the score at 12-12. Belcher then served up a pair of aces and Lowery and Conway denied a Roadrunner attack attempt as the Monarchs pulled away, 16-12. The sides traded points the rest of the way and ODU secured another 25-20 decision.
The Monarchs won three straight points to start the third set and stretched that lead to 7-2 as Bryanna Jones found pay dirt. The visitors would fight back to within 15-14 with a 4-2 swing and later strung together a 6-0 run to jump ahead, 20-18. However, back-to-back kills by Lowery and Blankenship followed by a solo block by Blankenship allowed ODU to reclaim the lead at 23-22. Belcher then assisted Conway to bring the match to an end, 25-23 in favor of the Monarchs.
Conway finished with 12 kills and swung for a .688 clip while Blankenship was next with 10 kills and Maggi scored nine. Belcher had a 20-assist outing with four aces and Levick totaled 14 assists with two aces on the night. Lowery led ODU at the net with four blocks, Blankenship and Conway followed with three each, and Schelah contributed two blocks. Nine different players collected multiple digs, led by Munari with six and Levick with five.
As a team, ODU hit .250 in the match. The Monarchs scored more points (59-37) and kills (45-27), served more aces (6-4), had more assists (43-27) and recorded more blocks (8-6).
Up Next
The Quest for the Crown resumes on Saturday, beginning with a 10 a.m. match between Marist and UTSA. Virginia and W&M will take the court at 1 p.m., and ODU will then host the Cavaliers at 7 p.m. to wrap up the tournament.