Courtesy Duquesne Athletics
Lukas Henne | Sports editor
September 2, 2021
In its first off-conference operation in nearly two years, the Duquesne volleyball team made the most of their trip to Youngstown, Ohio, winning two of three games during the YSU / DoubleTree-Youngstown Invitational this past weekend.
In their first game on Friday afternoon at the Beeghly Center, the Dukes defeated hosts Youngstown State in straight sets. Hailey Poling led with 27 assists, while Summer Slade recorded 11 excavations and 10 kills in the season opener win over the Penguins.
The win was the first for the Dukes in a non-conference competition since September 21, 2019, when they defeated Eastern Kentucky during the Mountaineer Invitational in Morgantown, W.Va. defeated.
Just a few hours later, Duquesne faced Saint Francis (Pa.) And defeated the Red Flash in four sets. Poling added another 31 assists to head coach Steve Opperman’s team in the second win of the day.
Morgan Kelly recorded 13 kills and seven excavations while Slade recorded 11 excavations and nine kills.
The straight wins were the first for Duquesne since beating George Mason (twice) and La Salle three times in a row in October 2019.
After regrouping, the Dukes returned to the stage on Saturday afternoon to face Akron in their final game of the invitational tournament.
After dropping the first set, the Dukes regrouped and recorded both the second and third frames. They couldn’t finish the match, however, and the Zips grabbed the fourth set at 25:23 before beating Duquesne at 15:13 in the deciding set.
Kelly recorded 24 kills and 18 excavations in loss, while three other dukes recorded 15 or more excavations.
Despite losing in the last game of the Invitational, Duquesne started the season with two wins. During the shortened spring season, the dukes won only one of their nine competitions.
The Dukes can’t return to the confines of UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse just yet, but they will be closer to home for their next trio of games.
Duquesne will be attending the RMU / Chick-fil-A Robinson Labor Day Classic at the UPMC Events Center in Moon Township, Pennsylvania this weekend. The Dukes will battle Idaho and Liberty on Friday before facing hosts Robert Morris on Saturday afternoon.
The upcoming Weekend Invitational is the first of three multi-team non-conference events over the next three weekends for the Dukes.
Duquesne will travel to Buffalo, NY to compete against Canisius, Buffalo, and American in the Western New York Invitational on September 10th and 11th.
The Dukes will then travel to the Kent State Invitational in Kent, Ohio, where they will meet Youngstown State again (September 17) before going up against hosts Kent State (September 18).
