NORFOLK, Va. – After spending the past two weeks on the road, Old Dominion volleyball returned to its home court on Thursday night and opened the Old Dominion Invitational with a 3-0 win over Rutgers.
The Monarchs (9-2) have now won six matches in a row, their longest win streak in the program’s five-year history, and improve to 3-1 when playing at the ODU Volleyball Center. Tonight’s match marked the first meeting between the two schools and it was also ODU’s second-ever victory against a Power Four opponent. The Monarchs defeated West Virginia, 3-0 on Sept. 14 last season to open the Mountaineer Invitational.
Asked about what he’s seen from the team so far this season, ODU Head Coach Fred Chao replied, “I’ve always been appreciative of how hard they worked in the spring. That really laid the foundation for everything else. Coming back in the summer and working hard, that all pays off. So we were able to train at a higher clip from the get go. Right now we’re just trying to figure out some of the details of our system, some of the nuances of the personnel when we move people in and out of the match. What does that mean and what does that do to any of the changes we need to make? But I think we’re executing well. We could have connected with our middles a little bit better in that match, so that’s something we’re going to try and look at.”
ODU 3, Rutgers 0
The Scarlet Knights (4-6) got on the board first in the opening set as Natalie Robinson scored a ball from Lily Bolen and Alissa Kinkela followed with a service ace. After an Elisa Maggi kill cut the deficit to 10-9, the Monarchs caught up to the visitors as Ashlynn Belcher assisted Emma Schelah. A couple of RU attack errors and kills from Myah Conway and Maggi made it a 6-0 run as the home team pulled ahead, 14-10. The guests knotted the set at 17-17, but were never able to retake the lead. With the score even at 24-24, Rutgers’ Lexi Visintine committed an attack error before Maggi scored her sixth kill to grab the set point at 26-24.
The second set was locked at 11-11 when a Kinkela service error allowed ODU to grab the lead. Conway followed that up with a kill and Schelah served an ace to push the advantage to 14-11. Robinson scored a kill to secure the next point for RU, but another Conway kill and an Elisabeth Levick ace opened a 7-0 surge that put the set out of reach, 21-12. A Kate Kilpatrick ace then clinched another set for the Monarchs at 25-14.
Rutgers took a 3-0 lead to open the third set, but ODU put together a 6-0 response and never looked back. A block by LeeAnne Lowery and Hailee Blankenship capped off a 4-0 push that extended the lead, 12-5. Later on in the set, a couple of Blankenship kills highlighted another 4-0 run as the Monarchs pulled away, 22-11. Levick then assisted Bryanna Jones to close out the match with another 25-14 tally.
Blankenship and Conway scored 11 kills each to pace the ODU attack, with Maggi close behind at nine kills and Jones tallying seven. Levick and Belcher finished the night with 16 and 13 assists, respectively, and Maggi served a team-high three aces. Kilpatrick turned in a 15-dig performance and Maggi also reached double-digit digs with 10. At the net, Schelah registered three blocks with Lowery and Conway contributing two blocks each.
“Myah does Myah things, but really Hailee and Elisa and Bryanna did a really good job on the pins,” continued Chao. “[Rutgers] couldn’t really gang up on anybody because everybody was doing their job and they were doing it well. Our passing held up well and of course our serving is still a big weapon for us. That got us a lot of points and a lot of momentum, knocked them out of system so that we can block and defend. And then we transitioned really well.”
The Monarchs hit .269 as a group, including a .320 mark in the second set and .379 clip in the third, while holding their opponents to a .021 attack percentage. ODU also edged Rutgers in points (52-33), kills (41-21), assists (37-19) and digs (47-29). Both teams served six aces and the Scarlet Knights made one more block (6-5).
Thursday’s match featured 15 ties and only five lead changes.
Up Next
The Old Dominion Invitational resumes tomorrow, beginning with a 3 p.m. match between Rutgers and Maryland Eastern Shore. The Monarchs will then host Radford with first serve against the Highlanders scheduled for 6 p.m.