NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball opened this weekend’s Old Dominion Invitational with a 3-0 win over Delaware on Friday night at the ODU Volleyball Center. It was the first ever meeting between the Monarchs and Blue Hens.
“It feels good to have executed at a high level for so long,” ODU head coach Fred Chao said afterwards. “The first weekend we put together a set here and there. Last weekend we were challenged quite a bit and we finally won [a match], but again it was kind of up and down. I thought we played two-and-a-half really good sets today, and that half set Delaware was putting some points together. We had to respond and I think we did.”
ODU 3, Delaware 0
Delaware’s Anna Logan Gillens put away a ball from Cadence Nguyen for the first point of the opening set, but the Monarchs (2-5) took over with a 7-0 run in response. The Blue Hens (2-4) were able to string together four straight points to help close the gap 7-5, but ODU’s offense wouldn’t let up as the home team pulled away 15-8 on a successful attack by Katie Rakoski. A couple of ODU errors and an ace by Kristyn Membreno cut the Monarch lead to 18-15, but the tournament hosts stayed out front and took the first set, 25-19.
Set two proved even more one-sided as Old Dominion built an early 9-2 advantage that was helped by three consecutive Delaware errors. Ahead 16-8, another couple of Blue Hen mistakes sparked a 5-0 push by the Monarchs that made it a 21-8 lead. Wiktoria Zagumny assisted Bryanna Jones for the set point at 25-14.
The third set proved to be a battle as Delaware refused to go down without a fight. Three straight kills from LeeAnne Lowery, Rakoski, and Jones put the Monarchs up 9-4, but the visitors would pull even at 10-10 on a block by Logan Gillens and Sila Ozyurek. The set remained a back-and-forth affair until back-to-back kills by Lowery and Elisa Maggi forced a Blue Hen timeout with ODU leading 22-20. An attack error by Maggi allowed UD to pull to within a point at 23-22, but Jones scored another two kills to clinch the victory.
Jones and Maggi paced ODU’s attack with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. The 14 kills mark a new season high for Jones, who swung for a .385 clip and added six digs and one assist to her final line. Maggi posted a .258 hitting percentage to go with seven digs, two blocks and one assist. Lowery followed them both, tallying eights while hitting .278 and recording three blocks.
Zagumny turned in a 33-assist, 10-dig double-double, her second of the season. The junior setter from Warsaw, Poland now owns 1,952 career assists and helped the Monarchs combine to hit .259 in the match, ODU’s best mark this season. She also served one ace and made two blocks.
Kate Kilpatrick finished the night with a team-high 13 digs, served three aces, and added three assists.
“I think when everybody’s successful like that, I think Wiktoria deserves a lot of credit and Kyra [Hampton] coming in and doing some good things,” added Chao. “The passing was really good. Kate did a fantastic job controlling the serve receive and the outsides were passing really well. It made it easy for Wiktoria to distribute the ball and everybody had a chance to contribute tonight.”
There were only 10 ties in the match, nine of them in the final set, and just four lead changes. The Monarchs edged their opponent in kills (43-29), assists (41-27), service aces (4-3), and digs (47-40). ODU also held Delaware to just a .098 hitting percentage, a season low.
Up Next
The Old Dominion Invitational resumes tomorrow with a 2 p.m. neutral match between Delaware and Villanova. ODU will then be back in action on Sunday when the Monarchs square off against the Wildcats at 2 p.m.