Troy Sports Information

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Troy women’s volleyball team opened its 2024 season by splitting two matches, as the Trojans fell 3-0 to Maryland, before rebounding against New Hampshire with a 3-1 win.

Troy (1-1) played strong against Maryland but couldn’t quite get in front of the Terrapins. In its second match, Troy handled its business against the Wildcats thanks in part to a dominant showing by senior outside hitter Tori Hester.

Hester (West Rowan) finished the first day of competition with 44 kills. The Trojans out-killed their opponents 100-83 while hitting .166 and generating 14.3 kills per set.

Match 1 
Despite the Trojans hanging in throughout the whole match, Maryland swept Troy 25-22, 25-17, 25-21.

In set one, Maryland led by as much as seven (17-10), but the Trojans fought back and cut the lead to 23-22 before the Terrapins closed out the set on a 3-0 run to take a 1-0 advantage. The Trojans jumped out to a lead on the first point of the second set, and while things remained close for much of it, Maryland closed the frame on an 8-3 run to extend their lead to two.

In the final set, Troy got off to a strong start and led for much of it, but couldn’t contain the Maryland scoring towards the end, as the Terrapins exploded on an 11-3 run to come back from an 18-14 deficit to win 25-21.

Hester had a match-high 15 kills on 40 attacks.

Match 2 
Troy rebounded well and dominated New Hampshire for most of the match, as they won 25-21, 25-27, 25-17, 25-21. Hester led the way with 29 kills, which is a new program record for kills in a four-set match, surpassing the previous mark of 28 set by Cheyenne Hayes in 2019.

Hester was also efficient in her impressive showing, as she hit .382 and committed just eight errors on 55 attempts.