NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball kept its winning streak alive as the Monarchs wrapped up the Old Dominion Invitational with a 3-0 win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday afternoon at the ODU Volleyball Center.
Myah Conway, Hailee Blankenship and Kate Kilpatrick were named to the All-Tournament Team with Conway adding Tournament MVP honors. For the weekend, the senior right side hitter scored 43 kills, averaging 3.91 per set, while hitting for a .388 attack percentage. Blankenship swung for a .262 mark with 22 kills and 17 digs in ODU’s three matches and Kilpatrick ended up with 40 digs (3.64 per set) with a .938 serve receive percentage.
“I want to thank Rutgers, Radford, and UMES for coming to the Invitational,” said ODU Head Coach Fred Chao. “It was a competitive tournament on many levels. Our team had a great first match and we were thinking our level would carry into the next day. But Radford came out firing and put together a performance that didn’t allow us to find ours. After gutting out the win, we were able to regroup and play a better match against a talented UMES squad. I’m proud of how the team pushed through each match and stayed together through some adversity.”
The Monarchs improve to 11-2 with the victory and have now won eight in a row. ODU is also 5-1 when playing on its home court.
ODU 3, UMES 0
The Hawks (5-6) jumped out to a 5-1 lead to start the match, but the Monarchs didn’t flinch. Down 7-5, Blankenship and Bryanna Jones scored consecutive kills before UMES’ Rayah Howell committed an attack error. A bad set by Howell and a block assist by Jones and LeeAnne Lowery sent the visitors back to the bench. Blankenship then served an ace coming out of the break to make it a 10-7 lead for ODU. The Hawks fought back to within 19-18 on a Lilliana Montes kill, but an error, an Elisa Maggi kill and a block from Maggi and Emma Schelah gave the Monarchs some cushion at 22-18. Ashlynn Belcher assisted Blankenship on the set point as ODU edged UMES, 25-22.
A pair of Conway kills highlighted a 4-0 run in the second set that allowed ODU to even the score at 10-10. After another tie at 18-18, a Ranyla Griggs attack error put the home team in front. Conway and Schelah then denied a Hawks attack attempt and Maggi served an ace as the visitors burned a timeout down 22-18. The sides traded points the rest of the way and ODU took a two-set lead with a 25-21 tally.
ODU set the tone early in the third set, winning seven of the first eight points. Blankenship and Schelah teamed up for another block and Lowery converted a couple of attack attempts to stretch the lead to 10-2. The Monarchs put together another 4-0 stretch to pull away 20-12 and Elisabeth Levick assisted Jones on the match point at 25-16.
Leading the attack was Conway who scored 17 kills while hitting .571. Lowery and Maggi were next with seven kills each and Jones was next with six. Belcher and Levick collected 23 and 12 assists, respectively, while Blankenship, Maggi and Kilpatrick each served one ace. Lowery made five blocks, two of them solo, Schelah had three blocks, and Jones and Conway added two blocks to their totals. Kilpatrick’s 11 digs led the back row and Maggi flirted with double digits with nine digs.
As a team, the Monarchs combined to hit .276, including a .424 clip in the third, while holding the Hawks to a .194 attack percentage. ODU led UMES in points (54-49), kills (43-40), blocks (8-6) and assists (42-39). The visitors ended up with more digs, 42-40, and both teams served three aces.
Saturday marked the first meeting between the two programs. The match featured just nine ties, eight of them in the second set, and only two lead changes. ODU led from start to finish in the third set.
2024 Old Dominion Invitational All-Tournament Team
Myah Conway, RS* ODU
Hailee Blankenship, OH ODU
Kate Kilpatrick, L ODU
Sophie Paspal, MB Radford
Sierra Moore, OH Radford
Natalie Robinson, MB Rutgers
Krista Dooley, RS Rutgers
Valeria Matias, L/DS UMES
Ranyla Griggs, OH UMES
*Tournament MVP
Up Next
ODU opens Sun Belt Conference play next weekend when the Monarchs head to Statesboro, Georgia for a pair of matches at Georgia Southern.