NORFOLK, Va. – After falling 3-1 to App State on Friday, Old Dominion volleyball responded with a 3-0 sweep of the Mountaineers on Saturday to split the Sun Belt Conference series.
ODU improves to 14-3 overall, matching its program record for wins in a season, and 3-1 in league play. For App State, the Mountaineers drop to 9-6 and are also 3-1 in the Sun Belt.
"I left yesterday knowing that the team would respond, it was just a matter of giving them the open door to say ‘Do what you know how to do’ and not give them too many things to think about," said ODU Head Coach Fred Chao afterwards.
ODU 3, App State 0
The Monarchs set the tone early as they raced out to a quick 6-0 thanks to a pair of Elisa Maggi service aces. The Mountaineers cut into that lead 6-3, but three kills from Bryanna Jones highlighted a 6-1 stretch as ODU pulled away 12-4. Jones tallied eight kills in the set, and Kate Kilpatrick served an ace for the set point at 25-13.
The second set looked a lot like the first, this time with Ashlynn Belcher serving a pair of early aces and Emma Schelah adding another to help build a 9-2 advantage. App State made a late charge to get to within 20-16, but Schelah teamed up with Maggi and Myah Conway for a pair of blocks as ODU earned five-straight points to grab another set, 25-16.
With the third set locked at 7-7, Schelah scored a ball from Belcher to open up a 5-0 run. That appeared to throw the Mountaineers off of their rhythm as ODU held on the rest of the way. A Lulu Ambrose kill and an ODU attack error gave the guests some hope at 24-21, but LeeAnne Lowery put away a ball from Belcher to complete the sweep.
Jones swung for a .313 hitting percentage and was one kill shy of her career best with 14. The Naperville, Illinois native added six digs with one block to finish the afternoon with 14.5 points, tying her season high. Also scoring double-digit kills was Maggi, who finished with 10 while hitting .304. She also served two aces, made one block, and added 13 digs for her fourth double-double of 2024. Belcher tallied 37 assist, served three aces, and flirted with a double-double as she ended up with nine digs. Schelah tied her season high with six blocks, two of them solo, Conway contributed four blocks and nine kills, and Kilpatrick matched Maggi with a 13-dig outing.
After being held to just a .104 hitting percentage on Friday, ODU improved to a .318 clip on Saturday, to include hitting for .382 in the opening set and .325 in the third. The team also continued its strong serving with eight aces to App State’s two and won the battle at the net, eight blocks to one. The Monarchs also outpaced their opponents in points (63-38), kills (47-35), assists (45-34) and digs (49-38).
ODU led the first two sets from start to finish. The final set featured six ties and just two lead changes.
On Jones’ effort in the match, Chao added, “She’s been working really hard this whole time and we’ve been looking for opportunities. This was the right one and she just exploded.”
Asked about how today’s win would propel the team going into the rest of the month, Chao commented, “Hopefully it shows that we got a bad match out of the way, and then a little more confidence knowing that we can bounce back and do this. We know how to play this game and don’t have to dwell on a bad match.”
Up Next
ODU will be in Atlanta, Georgia next weekend for a pair of Sun Belt matches at Georgia State. The Monarchs and Panthers will play at 6 p.m. next Friday, Oct. 18 and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19.