Noah Fries | staff writer

The Duquesne volleyball team achieved their best start since 2008 by winning their first match of the Best Western Invitational before dropping the next two at Millett Hall in Oxford, Ohio, over the weekend.

Sophomore outside hitter Emerson Schrom was once again the dominant force for the Dukes, notching at least 20 kills in each match of the weekend, earning her third consecutive all-tournament nod. Senior right-side hitter Carsyn Henschen was also instrumental throughout the invitational with 39 kills and 11 blocks.

This theme of Schrom dominating is nothing new for the Dukes, but an almost unbelievable fact lies in one statistic: she leads the entire country in total points (combination of kills, blocks and aces). Even with these numbers and accolades, Schrom tries not to pay attention to any of it.

“It’s so easy to get wrapped up in ‘I got it this week, but I didn’t get it the following week,’” Schrom said. “Honestly, I just care about winning matches. I want to perform for my team, not for myself and the things that I get — that’s not why I’m here.”

In the first match on Friday, Duquesne faced off against the University of Southern Indiana. The first set was entirely back-and-forth, with neither team having a lead larger than five points. Whenever the Dukes had a lead, the Screaming Eagles would fight right back to tie the set. A Schrom kill ended the set with a narrow 25-23 Duquesne win.

Southern Indiana roared right back in the second set, taking advantage of a number of Duquesne hitting errors to win the set, 25-20. The momentum of this set win carried the Screaming Eagles to set point in the third set, until two Schrom kills — combined with a service ace of her own — stole the set for the Dukes, 26-24.

The Dukes dominated the fourth set of the match, leading by as much as 7 before taking the set by a score of 25-19, and thus winning the match. Schrom led the Dukes with 21 kills, while freshman outside hitter Karli Jordan added a career-high 14 kills of her own. Junior setter Chloe Wilmot had a double-double with 55 assists and 10 digs.

As much as the Dukes would’ve loved to keep the winning streak in perpetuity, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders ended their tear, dropping the match 3-1.

The Dukes took the first set by the minimum, 25-23. After leading by as many as 7 points during the set, the Blue Raiders clawed almost all the way back before a Schrom kill put a bow on the set for Duquesne.

As Middle Tennessee continued to fight back, the Dukes did the best they could to weather the storm in each of the following three sets; however, they unfortunately fell just short in each of them (25-23, 25-22, 25-22) as Duquesne took its first loss of the 2025 campaign.

Schrom was the only Duke to reach double-digit kills in the match, recording 29 kills to set a program record for kills in a four-set match.  

Wilmot had her third consecutive match with over 50 assists, as well as a career high six kills.

In the final match of the Best Western Invitational, the Dukes took on the host RedHawks of Miami (OH). After dropping the first two extremely close sets to the RedHawks (25-22, 25-23), the Dukes displayed extreme resilience through the next two sets to fight all the way back to even the match at two sets a piece.

Junior middle blocker Jordan Robertson was a massive factor in sets three and four (25-20, 25-20) to push the match to a decisive fifth set.

In that fifth set, the RedHawks jumped to a 9-5 lead in a set that only goes to 15. Despite going back and forth for the next six points, the Dukes couldn’t dig themselves out. The loss took their record to 7-2.

Schrom posted her sixth double-double of the season with 21 kills and 20 digs, while Wilmot quarterbacked her offense with a career-high mark of 66 assists — extending her Division I leading assists mark to 416, as well as 11.89 assists per set.

“She’s so good at giving us hitters the sets that we want,” Henschen said. “She’s not just a setter — she gets blocks, she gets digs, she gets aces. She also brings a lot of fire because she wants it. She hates losing and brings so much fire to the court. She’s such a key piece to this team.”

Duquesne wraps up its nonconference schedule this weekend at home, with Buffalo at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saint Francis at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Noah Fries can be reached at friesn@duq.edu