Noah Fries | staff writer

The Duquesne volleyball team advanced to the A10 championship semifinals for the first time since 2021 with a victory against George Washington before falling to Loyola Chicago at Stuart C. Siegel Center in Richmond, Virginia, on Nov. 21 and 22.

With the loss to the Ramblers, the Dukes finished the 2025 season with an 18-13 overall record — their highest win total since 2016.

Sophomore outside hitter Emersen Schrom was the dominant force for Duquesne as she had been all year, tallying 47 kills, 30 digs, four blocks and three aces over the two matches. She was named to the A10 All-Championship Team after her commanding performances.

She also was named to the All-Conference First Team, the first Duke to achieve the honor since Arielle Love in 2014.

In the first match of the A10 tournament, Duquesne had a rematch against George Washington after losing to the Revolutionaries twice in five sets the weekend prior. The first set was categorized by side-out volleyball to start out, with no team able to go on any sustained service runs.

After the first run of the match, George Washington led 16-13 before Duquesne roared back, taking a 20-17 advantage. The Revolutionaries would fight back to push the set to extra points, but an attacking error would give the Dukes the set 26-24.

The second set would be almost a perfect mirror image of the first stanza. Each team went on their own runs that would give them the lead, but the other team would claw right back. The Revolutionaries had a set point at 24-23, but a 3-0 service run from senior defensive specialist Maggie Colenbrander — punctuated by two kills from Schrom — gave the Dukes another 26-24 win.

The third set was all George Washington, as the Revolutionaries hit .682 for a dominant 25-13 win to keep their season alive.

The fourth set, however, was all Duquesne — despite the final score being 25-21. The Dukes were up 24-15 before the Revolutionaries went on a 6-0 run to make it 24-21. On the next play, Schrom and junior middle blocker Jordan Robertson combined for a stuff block to give the Dukes the match victory.

Schrom was the only Duke in double figures for kills with 19, adding 12 digs for her 14th double-double of the year. Robertson carded eight blocks in the afternoon, which was a season high. Junior setter Chloe Wilmot had 47 assists and eight digs, while senior libero Madison Grimm led the team in digs with 14.

“Our kids went into the tournament with a positive attitude,” Head Coach Steve Opperman said. “We had played at VCU’s venue before, and we were familiar with the surroundings while GW wasn’t, and it was a battle. We knew that we could compete with anyone in our conference. It was just a matter of doing the little things better.”

In the semifinal match, the Dukes took on the No. 2 seed Ramblers of Loyola Chicago in a match of two extremely evenly matched squads. The final statistics were almost identical for both teams — Loyola had just two more points and kills than Duquesne, while both teams had seven aces and seven blocks.

The Dukes had a set point in the first set at 24-21 before the Ramblers went on a 4-0 run to push the set into extra points and gave them a set point of their own. However, a 3-0 run from Robertson gave Duquesne a 27-25 victory, its first set win against the Ramblers on the year after being swept twice in regular season play.

Duquesne rode this result into a dominant set two victory at 25-15, needing just one more set win to advance to the A10 final.

Unfortunately for the Dukes, Loyola Chicago wouldn’t give up. The Ramblers roared back to take the next two sets by a score of 25-20 to push the match to a decisive fifth set.

Duquesne took an 8-6 lead as the squads switched sides in the fifth set before a short burst gave Loyola Chicago a lead that it would never relinquish. The Ramblers took the match with a 15-11 victory that would end Duquesne’s season.

Schrom tallied her 15th double-double on the year with 28 kills and 18 digs, while senior right-side hitter Carsyn Henschen and junior outside hitter Kylie Griffin both notched double-digit kills for the Dukes, with 13 and 11, respectively. Wilmot dished out 62 assists, and Grimm recorded 27 digs — the second-highest mark of her career.

“Obviously, our goal every year is to make the tournament, but I feel like this year was a lot different,” Schrom said. “Everyone was 100% committed to our goal, and we knew what making the tournament and being successful meant to our program.”

Noah Fries can be reached at friesn@duq.edu