NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball won the third set, 25-19, but could not force a fifth as the Monarchs dropped their first match of the Sun Belt series versus Coastal Carolina, 3-1 on Friday night at the ODU Volleyball Center.
“There were some longer stretches of good volleyball. Winning the third set was reflective of that. We need to string more together and make less attacking errors,” ODU head coach Fred Chao said afterwards.
CCU 3, ODU 1
The Monarchs (4-12, 0-5 Sun Belt) opened the match with a 3-0 run, but the Chanticleers (5-9, 1-4) caught up at 10-10. ODU regained control, 13-11 as Wiktoria Zagumny made a solo block and Emma DiRocco followed with a kill, but two aces by CCU’s Hatteras Welker and a pair of block allowed the guests to jump ahead, 16-13. Zagumny assisted Elisa Maggi to narrow the gap, 18-16, but the Chants took off again with four unanswered points. Zagumny and Leilani Lawrence converted a couple of late attacks to force CCU back to its bench, but the Chanticleers held on for a 25-20 decision.
A Maggi service ace put the Silver and Blue out front, 4-1 at the start of the second set. A few rallies later, Erica Duffy followed suit with another ace to make it 6-3. The visitors put together a 5-0 run to take over control at 16-13. Down the stretch, ODU looked to serve set point after Lawrence terminated a ball from Zagumny at 24-23. However, Coastal Carolina secured the next three points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third set, a couple of Lawrence service aces helped build a 6-0 Monarch run as the home team led, 12-5. A couple of ODU errors allowed CCU to get to within three points, 22-19, but back-to-back kills by Weronika Urbanska and another kill by Emma Schelah clinched the set point for Old Dominion.
Coastal jumped out to a 4-1 lead to begin the fourth set, but ODU countered with a 7-1 push to overtake the Chants, 8-5. The Monarchs couldn’t hold onto that lead, though, as CCU strung together seven-straight points for a 16-11 advantage. Trailing 24-14, the Monarchs staved off match point with a late 4-0 run, but committed an attack error to bring the match to a close.
Three Monarchs finished with double-digit kills: Lawrence led the way with 16, Urbanska was next with 12, and Maggi ended up with 11. Zagumny totaled 35 assists on the night, and Lawrence and Duffy served two aces each. Libero Ashlyn Gent paced the ODU defense with 21 digs, Zagumny and Adrienne Peji followed with 10 each, and Lawrence and Maggi both recorded nine. At the net, DiRocco made a team-high four blocks while Lawrence and Zagumny were right behind her with three each.
ODU combined to hit .256 in the third set, but swung for a .079 clip for the match. The Monarchs edged the Chants in kills (50-40), assists (47-39), and digs (61-54), but the visitors served two more aces (8-6) and made 11 more blocks (18-7). There were 19 ties in the match, including nine in the second set, and nine lead changes.
Up Next
ODU and Coastal continue the Sun Belt series tomorrow with first serve scheduled for 2 p.m. The match will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will also be available.