NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball held a 10-9 lead in the fifth set, but could not complete the comeback as the Monarchs fell 3-2 on Saturday afternoon to conclude the TowneBank Royal Rivalry series.
“Clearly we wanted to win it, and I think we did as much as we possibly could to win it, so not disappointed in the effort at all,” said ODU head coach Fred Chao. “Our team put up a really good fight and grew from yesterday as well. I thought we fought well yesterday and could have pushed that match to five, so being able to do that today was really good for us.”
Saturday marked Senior Day for the Monarchs, and the team recognized LeeAnne Lowery in a pregame ceremony.
“It was tough to not have LeeAnne play in her last matches this weekend, but I hope that the efforts from her teammates showed how important she has been to this program,” added Chao.
JMU 3, ODU 2
After forcing a fifth set with a 25-23 decision in the fourth, ODU was ahead 4-2 following a JMU service error, a block by Emma Schelah and Katie Rakoski, and a kill from Schelah. The Dukes (20-6, 13-1 Sun Belt) pulled even at 4-4 and went up 8-7 as the teams switched sides. A couple of JMU attack errors and an Elisa Maggi kill allowed the Monarchs (5-20, 2-12) to grab control at 10-9, but a 3-0 run by the visitors forced ODU to use both of its timeouts. Wiktoria Zagumny assisted Rakoski to trim the JMU lead to 12-11, but the Dukes won the next three rallies to secure match point at 15-11.
ODU built an early 5-3 lead in the opening set, but a couple of errors and two aces by Shelby Davis saw JMU jump ahead, 7-5. Later, a Tiana Stubbs kill and an ace by Zagumny sent JMU back to its bench with the Monarchs up 19-17. The break paid off for the Dukes, who rattled off a 5-0 run highlighted by two Julia McNeley aces. Following an ODU timeout, the teams traded points as JMU came out on top, 25-22.
The Monarchs countered with a 25-21 decision in the second set. Rita Benidio capped off an early 4-0 run with an ace that gave ODU an 8-3 advantage. JMU tied things up at 15-15, but committed multiple service errors as ODU regained the lead at 19-16. JMU’s Addie Norman scored a couple of kills to close the gap at 22-21, but ODU recorded back-to-back blocks and Rakoski scored a kill to even the match at a set apiece.
James Madison put together an early 8-0 run to take over the third set, 10-3. The Monarchs fell behind 16-6 and later trailed 20-9. Maggi served an ace and Benidio and Rakoski both had successful attacks to trim the Dukes’ lead to 21-14, but the guests took a 2-1 overall lead in the match with a 25-15 total.
In the fourth set, three-straight kills by Schelah, Zagumny, and Maggi allowed ODU to jump ahead, 16-12. JMU tied the set multiple times at 16-16, 19-19, 22-22, and again at 23-23. The Monarchs kept the match going though as Zagumny assisted Benidio and Maggi for set point at 25-23.
Benidio scored a team-high 16 kills and added 11 digs for her second double-double of the season. Also finishing with double-digit kills were Maggi with 14 and Rakoski with 13. Zagumny tallied 42 assists with 14 digs for her fourth double-double, and the junior setter added five kills, two aces, and two blocks to her final line. Maggi also served two aces, Kilpatrick had 16 digs with eight assists and one ace, and Schelah led ODU at the net with four blocks.
Asked about his team’s defensive effort, Chao said, “The team does a really good job scouting. We scout so that we can really control our block defense. I think where we really need to make some progress is our firepower. We are still figuring out where we’re going to score points from, but over the last few days we saw some really nice things out of Rita Benidio. Elisa [Maggi] had a pretty good day today compared to yesterday, and our middles are starting to function. It’s just taking this young group a long time to get it going.”
ODU hit just .179 for the match, but swung for a .379 clip in the first set. There were a total of 41 ties, to include 13 in the first set, another 13 in the fourth, and nine in the fifth. The match also had 21 lead changes.
Up Next
Old Dominion will finish the regular season on the road at Arkansas State next weekend. The Sun Belt series is set for a 7 p.m. ET start on Friday, Nov. 14 and a 1 p.m. ET first serve on Saturday, Nov. 15.