BOONE, N.C. - The App State volleyball team is set for its final regular season road trip, traveling to Norfolk, Va. to take on Old Dominion for the first time in conference play. Friday's match is set for 6:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted on ESPN+. Saturday's match is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Last Time Out
The Mountaineers are on a six-match win-streak, most recently recording a pair of 3-0 sweeps against Marshall on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22 at Holmes Convocation Center. App State's streak started on Oct. 6 and, in addition to the back-to-back sweeps of Marshall, includes three consecutive 3-2 victories (Oct. 6-14), and four road wins in a row (Oct. 6-15).
Sophomore
Lulu Ambrose led the Mountaineers in kills in both matches against the Herd, posting 11on Friday and 12 on Saturday. Freshman
Alyssa McBean led App State in digs, posting 12 each match. Senior
McCall Denny led the Black and Gold in aces (3) and tied with senior
Sarah Missroon in blocks, with three, on Friday. Missroon, junior
Madison Baldridge and freshman
Maya Winterhoff all notched two blocks during Saturday's clash. Saturday's match also saw Denny, junior
Sophie Cain, and McBean post two aces apiece. Cain recorded a team-high 19 assists on Friday, while senior
Sam Bickley led the team in assists with 18 on Saturday.
Denny leads the Mountaineers in kills with 243 this season and is tied with Winterhoff for the lead in the service aces category with 26 apiece. Winterhoff holds the team-high in blocks, totaling 76. Cain has recorded a team-high 441 assists this fall and freshman
Kenady Roper holds the lead in the digs category with 244.
Winterhoff continues to lead the Sun Belt for hitting percentage this season thus far (.413) and ranks fourth for league-only play (.385). Nationally, Winterhoff stands 11th for her hitting percentage. In the blocks category, Missroon ranks fourth for the season so far and sixth in conference-only play. McBean stands seventh in the conference for aces in SBC play.
App State stands fifth in the SBC in aces (142, averaging 1.67 per set), sixth in the hitting percentage category (.228), and eighth in the blocks category (173, averaging 2.04 per set) and digs category (1200, averaging 14.12 per set) for the season. For league-only play, App State ranks fourth in the aces category (67, averaging 1.67 per set), and is eighth in both the hitting percentage (.219) and blocks (84 total, averaging 2.10 per set) categories.
Last Time Against Old Dominion
The Mountaineers last met the Monarchs on Sept. 3, 2021, at the Black & Gold Challenge in Boone, N.C. App State fell, 3-1, to ODU. Denny slammed down a team-high 16 kills and also recorded two assists, an ace, and a block. Bickley led the team in assists, tallying 37, and posted nine digs and one block.
Scouting Old Dominion
Old Dominion is 8-13 (3-5 SBC) this fall and 4-3 on its home court. The Monarchs posted victories over Marist (Sept. 2), Coppin State (Sept. 2), Navy (Sept. 8), Norfolk State (Sept. 13), and VCU (Sept. 17) in non-conference action. ODU opened Sun Belt play with a 3-1 victory over Marshall on Sept. 22, followed by a 3-0 sweep of the Herd on Sept. 23. The Monarchs' third conference win occurred on Oct. 14 against Coastal Carolina. ODU has dropped its last three matches to Coastal Carolina (Oct. 15), and Louisiana (Oct. 20 and 21).
Myah Conway is the Monarchs' leader in the kills category, tallying 246 so far this season. Conway is eighth in the league for conference only play and rounds out the top-10 in the SBC for kills so far this season. Leading the team in the assists and aces category is Teresa Atilano, who has earned 608 assists and 32 aces. In the Sun Belt, Atilano ranks sixth for aces this season and ninth in conference play. She also ranks eighth in the assists category for both the season as a whole and SBC play. Jamie Bissmeyer boasts the most digs for ODU with 225 and Bailey Burgess has totaled a team-high 75 blocks. Burgess ranks third in the conference in the blocks category and fifth in the hitting percentage category (.378) for league-only action. For the season as a whole, Burgess checks in a seventh in the conference in the blocks category.
Last season ODU went 13-13 (5-7 C-USA). The Monarchs notched 3-0 sweeps over Liberty (Sept. 10), Norfolk State (Sept. 18), and Charlotte (Oct. 9). ODU also edged past UAB and Marshall, with scores of 3-2, on Oct. 1 and Oct. 15, respectively. Old Dominion closed out the 2021 season with a pair of 3-1 victories over Middle Tennessee (Nov. 5 and 6).
ODU announced the addition of volleyball to its slate of teams on Feb. 8, 2018. The Monarchs' first countable season was the fall of 2020 in Conference USA.
Up Next
App State will have a four-match homestead to close out the regular season. The Mountaineers will host Georgia Southern on Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. and Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. at Holmes Convocation Center. The Black and Gold will return to the court on Nov. 11 at 6 p.m. and Nov. 12 at 1 p.m to clash with Louisiana.
