NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball took the opening set in its Sun Belt Conference opener, but ultimately fell to App State, 3-1 on Thursday night at the ODU Volleyball Center.
"Tonight showed a range of what we are capable of, both highs and lows," said ODU head coach Fred Chao. “We know we can compete, the challenge ahead is to do it for longer stretches. We have to cut down on errors that cut our ability to build momentum and make runs of points. We also have to execute more consistently so we aren’t giving up runs of points.”
ODU falls to 4-8 overall and 0-1 in league play with the loss. App State is now 8-7 and 1-0 in Sun Belt action.
App State 3, ODU 1
The Monarchs raced out to an early 6-2 lead in the opening set thanks to a couple of successful swings by Emma Schelah and a service ace from Rita Benidio. That grew to 8-3 as Wiktoria Zagumny assisted Elisa Maggi before Schelah followed with an ace. The Mountaineers put together a 5-0 response to pull ahead 12-11. The rest of the set remained close with the visitors up 23-22 late, but back-to-back kills by Leilani Lawrence and a block by Lawrence and Schelah secured the set for ODU, 25-23.
Old Dominion trailed, 7-6 in the second set when App State took off with 10 unanswered points. The Monarchs were forced to burn both of their timeouts and were unable to recover as the guests pulled even in the match with a 25-12 tally.
In the third set, Maggi put away a ball from libero Ashlyn Gent to trim the App State lead to 11-9, but a 4-0 run widened the gap, 15-9 at the media timeout. The Mountaineers used another 4-0 push to separate themselves, 22-14 and grabbed another set point at 25-16.
Weronika Urbanska scored a kill, Gent served an ace, and Maggi followed with another kill to put ODU out front, 6-4 in the fourth set. After App State knotted the set at 7-7, and again at 8-8, a block by Zagumny and Schelah opened up a 5-1 Monarch run as the Silver and Blue seized control, 13-9. After an App State timeout, the Mountaineers found their rhythm offensively, outpacing the home team 8-3 to overtake the Monarchs at 17-16. Urbanska converted an attack and teamed up with Emma DiRocco for a block before an App State attacking error tied the score at 22-22. Old Dominion couldn’t force a fifth set, however, as App State won the next three rallies to close out the match.
Lawrence led both teams with 18 kills while hitting .227 for the match, and Maggi and Urbanska followed with nine kills each. Zagumny ended the night with 36 assists while four different Monarchs recorded an ace, led by Schelah with two. On the other side of the net, Zagumny, Gent, and Adrienne Peji had eight digs each. Schelah and Zagumny led ODU with four and three blocks, respectively.
The Silver and Blue combined to hit .151, but the visitors swung for a .342 clip. App State also racked up 15 blocks compared to just five by ODU. There were 31 ties, including 12 in the first set and nine in the fourth, with just 12 lead changes.
Up Next
The two teams continue the Sun Belt series tomorrow night with first serve scheduled for 6 p.m.