NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion volleyball played a close second set, but Marshall came away with a 3-0 decision in Friday’s Sun Belt series opener at the ODU Volleyball Center.
“We need our pins to score, and some of them were making more errors than points. We’re just trying to find the next person up that’s going to take some swings and score some points for us,” ODU head coach Fred Chao said when asked about making changes to his starting rotation.
ODU falls to 4-16 overall and 0-9 in the Sun Belt, while Marshall improves to 13-7 with a 6-3 mark in conference action.
Marshall 3, ODU 0
The Thundering Herd built an early 5-2 lead in the first set, but a pair of Rita Benidio kills had the Monarchs back within a point at 9-8. That’s when the visitors took off with a 7-0 run that was punctuated by a Kahea Carvalho service ace. Ashlyn Gent assisted Katie Rakoski and Leilani Lawrence teamed up with Taylor Motes on consecutive blocks as a 4-0 ODU run cut the deficit to 18-15. The Silver and Blue wouldn’t get any closer though as the Herd took the opening set, 25-17.
The Monarchs held a 4-3 advantage in the second set as Lawrence terminated a ball from Kyra Hampton before Rakoski and Motes denied a Marshall attack attempt. The Herd earned four-straight points to seize control, 8-5 and pulled away for a 16-9 lead. ODU continued to put up a fight, benefitting from a couple of Marshall errors along with an Elisa Maggi kill to trim the Herd’s lead to 16-12. Later in the set, Maggi scored a kill, followed with an ace, and Hampton added a solo block to get to 18-17. Rakoski had a good swing to knot the score at 22-22 and force a Marshall timeout, then converted another attack out of the break to give ODU the lead. The next three rallies went to the guests as they took a 2-0 lead with a 25-23 decision.
Asked what he thought about seeing his team fight their way back into the set, Chao added, “It’s great to see that they can put some things together. We need to do it more and it’s hard to talk about it with them still because they know it, they’ve heard it, watched it, and trained it. We’re still figuring out how to make less errors and it’s a tough place to be right now.”
Old Dominion couldn’t carry over their momentum into the third set as the dug themselves a 6-2 hole. Hampton assisted Motes on a couple of kills to narrow the gap, 9-7, but Marshall outpaced ODU, 10-1 for a 19-8 tally. Rakoski scored a couple of kills and Emma DiRocco served an ace for a late 3-0 push as the Monarchs trailed, 20-13. Marshall took five of the next six points however to close out the match, 25-14.
Rakoski hit .357 on the night and led ODU’s attack with 13 kills. It’s her third double-digit kill performance in the last four matches. Benidio followed with eight kills, Hampton recorded a 26-assist, 15-dig double-double, her first of the season, and Maggi and DiRocco served one ace each. Gent tallied nine digs and Motes led the Monarchs at the net with five blocks, a new career best.
The Monarchs edged the Herd in blocks, 7-5, but the visitors had more points (49-44), kills (38-35), aces (6-2), and assists (36-34). Both sides had 41 digs. The series opener had nine ties, seven of them in the second set, and only five lead changes.
Up Next
ODU and Marshall are back on the court tomorrow for the second match of the Sun Belt series. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.
“If the positives show up from today and we are able to be a little more efficient, a little more effective attacking, then this will be a whole different game.”