NORFOLK, Va. – Tied at 12-12 in the fifth set, kills by Hailee Blankenship and Myah Conway helped Old Dominion volleyball secure its 10th win of the season as the Monarchs defeated Radford, 3-2 on Day Two of the Old Dominion Invitational.
The Highlanders (3-7) put together a 3-0 run to grab an 8-6 lead as the teams traded sides, but LeeAnne Lowery followed up a solo block with a kill to knot the decisive set at 8-8. RU again pulled ahead 11-9, but Elisa Maggi put away a ball from Ashlynn Belcher and the guests committed an attack error for another tie at 11-11. A few plays later, ODU benefitted from a couple of Radford attack errors that allowed the Monarchs (10-2) to pull ahead at 13-12. Old Dominion then secured two of the next three points to come away with the victory.
ODU has now won seven in a row and needs four more wins to tie the program record for wins in a season.
ODU 3, Radford 2
The Monarchs won the first two sets of the match, 25-18 and 25-23. With the opening set even at 13-13, ODU captured five-straight points to pull away. The Highlanders countered with a 5-1 swing of their own to close the gap to 19-18, but a Maggi kill started a 6-0 run to close out the set.
Radford was out front 16-10 in the second set when ODU elected to use a timeout. That break seemed to do the trick as Emma Schelah served four aces, three of them in a row, to highlight a 7-0 stretch. The Highlanders were up 23-22 late, but Elisabeth Levick set up Bryanna Jones for a kill, Radford’s Rylee Sloss committed an attack error, and Schelah blocked an Alana Kolb attack attempt to give ODU a two-set lead.
ODU held a 14-7 advantage in the third set, but momentum swung in favor of RU as the guests scored 11 unanswered points to go up 23-16. A couple of Conway kills cut the deficit to 24-20, but an ODU service error sent the match to a fourth set.
The Monarchs trailed 18-14 in the fourth when they elected to call another timeout. Three-straight kills from Conway capped off a 7-0 run as the home team wrestled away the lead at 21-18. ODU looked to serve mat point at 25-24, 26-25 and again at 27-26, but Radford wouldn’t go away. After a Kilpatrick service error, Kennedy Robinson assisted Sierra Moore before Kolb served an ace. That clinched a 29-27 decision for the Highlanders as they forced a fifth set.
Conway led ODU’s attack with 15 kills while hitting for a .257 clip, Maggi finished with 10 kills and as many digs, and Jones also tallied 10 kills with a pair of blocks. Belcher turned in a 36-assist, 11-dig double-double, Levick ended up with 17 assists, and Schelah served six aces. Kilpatrick registered a team-high 16 digs to lead the back row while Schelah and Lowery had five blocks each to lead the effort at the net.
For the match, ODU edged the visitors in kills (59-55) and assists (57-52). Radford scored more points (83-81) and finished with more aces (14-12) and blocks (14-10). Both teams tallied 58 digs.
With the win, ODU improves to 2-0 in the all-time series versus the Highlanders. There were a total of 39 ties and 22 lead changes in the match.
Up Next
ODU will wrap up the Invitational on Saturday at 4 p.m. when the Monarchs host Maryland Eastern Shore.