NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball capped off the Monarch Invitational with a 3-1 win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Sunday afternoon at the ODU Volleyball Center.
The Monarchs improve to 4-4 with the win, while the Hawks fall to 1-7. ODU also moves to 2-0 in the all-time series with UMES.
ODU 3, UMES 1
A service ace by Wiktoria Zagumny and a couple of kills by Leilani Lawrence highlighted a 5-0 run that gave the Monarchs a 7-3 lead early in the opening set. The Silver and Blue then recorded four blocks to help separate themselves, 15-9 at the media timeout. The Hawks struggled to put together a run of their own, and ODU grabbed the first set point, 25-18.
The visitors looked to bounce back in the second set, jumping out to a 6-2 lead and Dynasty Andrews and Karielys Melendez teamed up for a block. Rita Benidio served a pair of aces and Emma DiRocco converted a couple of attacks to help spark an 8-0 Monarch run. Melendez put away a ball from Andrews to cut the ODU lead to 11-9, but Emma Schelah scored a kill to open up a 4-0 push as ODU led 15-9 at the media timeout yet again. A couple of Malaysia Shaw kills and an ace by Rayah Howell trimmed the Monarch lead to 16-13, but that was as close as the Hawks would get. Elisa Maggi scored two late kills to secure another set point, 25-18.
The Monarchs held a narrow 17-16 advantage in the third set when a couple of errors opened up an opportunity for the Hawks. UMES’ Jocelyn Torres served an ace and ODU went to the bench trailing 19-17. Old Dominion burned another timeout not long after following kills by Melendez and Shaw. The duo then blocked an attack attempt by Katie Rakoski and Shaw scored another attack attempt to make it a 7-0 UMES run. The visitors held on for a 25-18 tally to keep the match going.
The fourth set remained a tight battle from start to finish with 15 of the match’s 29 ties. Knotted at 21-21, Zagumny assisted Schelah on a kill, Lawrence and DiRocco made a block, and Lawrence scored a kill to get the Monarchs within a point of claiming the match. UMES earned the next two rallies to force ODU to call a timeout, but Zagumny won a joust at the net to bring the match to a close, 25-23.
ODU had a balanced attack on the afternoon. Lawrence swung for a .296 hitting percentage and led the team with 13 kills, and Maggi also reached double digits with 10 kills. Zagumny and DiRocco followed with eight kills each, Rakoski contributed seven, and Schelah had six. Zagumny had another strong effort setting as she finished the day with 41 assists. Six different Monarchs served an ace, with Benidio serving a pair.
Defensively, first year libero Ashlyn Gent turned in a 13-dig effort to led ODU’s back line. At the net, DiRocco made 10 blocks, the most by a Monarch since alumni LeeAnne Lowery had 10 blocks against Louisiana on Oct. 19, 2023. Schelah wasn’t far behind DiRocco with seven blocks, Rakoski chipped in six, and Zagumny had four.
Old Dominion outhit Maryland Eastern Shore, .340 to .144. The Monarchs also edged the Hawks in kills (54-42), assists (51-36), digs (27-23), and blocks (17-10). The 17 blocks mark a new program record, surpassing the team’s previous best of 16 blocks in a Nov. 5, 2021 match versus Middle Tennessee.
Up Next
ODU will round out non-conference play at East Carolina’s No Quarter Invitational next weekend in Greenville, North Carolina. The Monarchs will face the tournament hosts on Thursday night at 7 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. match versus Campbell on Friday and a 1 p.m. meeting with Maryland on Saturday.