HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Old Dominion volleyball won the opening set at Southern Miss, 25-23 on Saturday, but the Golden Eagles claimed the next three as the Monarchs fell 3-1 to split the Sun Belt series.
It marks the third year in a row that the two programs have split their meetings, with the all-time series remaining tied at 3-3. With the loss, ODU falls to 15-6 overall and 4-4 in conference play.
USM 3, ODU 1
The Monarchs jumped out to a 6-3 start to the opening set and later led 9-5 as Tshilanda Diouf and LeeAnne Lowery teamed up for a block. The Golden Eagles (9-13, 5-5 Sun Belt) pulled even at 9-9 and then put together a 5-0 run to go up 20-14, forcing a pair of ODU timeouts. The Monarchs came out of the break determined, with kills by Hailee Blankenship and Myah Conway and two more from Lowery cutting the USM lead to 20-18. Down 22-19, Lowery and Diouf denied a Southern Miss attack attempt, Elisa Maggi served an ace, and Lowery and Blankenship then made another block to knot the set at 22-22. USM’s Aysu Dalogullari committed back-to-back attack errors and Blankenship put away a ball from Elisabeth Levick to clinch the set point at 25-23.
The second set remained close from start to finish. USM’s Lillie Johnson served consecutive service aces for a 5-2 lead, but ODU claimed the next four points to seize control at 6-5. The Golden Eagles took a 22-19 lead late, but the Monarchs again tied the score on a block by Conway and Emma Schelah. ODU looked to serve match point after a pair of Conway kills made it 24-23 in favor of the Monarchs. However, four of the next five points went to the home team as Sadie McAda scored a pair of kills to even the match with a 27-25 tally.
USM came out faster in the third set, quickly building an 15-6 lead thanks to an 8-1 swing. ODU couldn’t come up with a counter, and the Golden Eagles grabbed another set at 25-13. In the fourth, the Monarchs dug themselves a 19-13 hole and nearly came all the way back. After a service error made it 23-17 in favor of USM, the Golden Eagles committed three straight attack errors. Maggi then converted an attack and Adrienne Peji served an ace to get ODU back to within a point at 23-22. The effort came up just short though as another service error and a kill by Torrey Tkach sealed the victory for USM at 25-23.
Conway scored 14 kills and Maggi scored 13 to pace ODU’s attack, Lowery just missed out on double digits with nine kills, and Blankenship turned in an eight-kill effort. Ashlynn Belcher finished with 25 assists, Levick tallied 14, and Maggi served a pair of aces. Lowery led the defensive effort with six blocks, one of them solo, and Diouf, Conway, and Schelah all made three blocks each. On the back row, Blankenship had a team-high 15 digs while Belcher added 10 digs for her third double-double in the past four matches.
Neither team hit well, with USM combining for a .190 clip and ODU swinging for a .114 mark. The Monarchs had one more assist than the Golden Eagles at 45-44, but the hosts did better in every other category. The second set featured 17 of the match’s 31 ties and nine of the 11 lead changes.
Up Next
ODU will be back in Norfolk next weekend when the Monarchs host Marshall for a pair of Sun Belt matches at the ODU Volleyball Center on Nov. 1-2.