Sophomore Sammie Brown

Five-Game Road Trip To End After Stops In Windy City And Aloha State

Oct. 13, 2011

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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Last week’s eastbound bus trip yielded BIG EAST Conference volleyball wins at Pittsburgh and West Virginia for Notre Dame. This week the Irish head to DePaul for a league match on Friday (Oct. 14) then hit the friendly skies for a pair of showdowns at No. 8 Hawai’i.

This will be the fourth road trip for Notre Dame, which will return to Purcell Pavilion Oct. 23 for a bout with USF to end a five-game trek away from home.

Live stats will be available for Friday’s match at DePaul while the double-dip at Hawai’i will be televised on OCSports. Local radio coverage will be provided by Honolulu’s ESPN 1420.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-6 overall – 3-3 BIG EAST)
[und.com – bigeast.org]

DePaul Blue Demons (4-15 overall – 1-5 BIG EAST)
[depaulbluedemons.com – bigeast.org]
Friday, Oct. 14 – 7:00 p.m. (CT)
Series history: Notre Dame leads, 12-4 (6-0 BIG EAST, 3-3 North Star)
Series streak: Notre Dame, W8
First meeting: 10.2.83 – DePaul, 2-0
Last meeting: 10.15.10 – Notre Dame, 3-1

No. 8 Hawai’i Rainbows (16-1 overall – 6-0 Western Athletic)
[hawaiiathletics.com – wacsports.com]
Monday, Oct. 17 – 7:00 p.m. (HT)
Tuesday, Oct. 18 – 7:00 p.m. (HT)
Series history: Hawaii leads, 7-1
Series streak: Hawaii, W7
First meeting: 10.22.92 – Notre Dame, 3-0
Last meeting: 10.17.06 – Hawaii, 3-1

Following the Irish …
Live stats: UND.com
Radio: ESPN 1420 (at Hawai’i)
TV: OCSports (at Hawai’i)
Facebook: facebook.com/NotreDameAthletics, facebook.com/NDvolleyball
Twitter: @UND_com, @NDvolleyball,@NDcoachBrown, @NDsidJorge

Bump, Set, Spike …

– Kellie Sciacca recorded her 1,000th career kill when Notre Dame pulled out a 3-1 win over DePaul in 2010 … Andrea McHugh blitzed the Blue Demons with 23 kills on 50 swings (.340) … DePaul raised a few eyebrows by capturing the opening frame for its first victorious set over the Irish in the last eight matches of the series … the Irish hold a 38-11 advantage in sets won throughout the 16-match series … the teams have never played a five-set match … 11 of Notre Dame’s 12 victories have been in three sets … Notre Dame posted its seventh consecutive win over the Blue Demons in 2009, holding DePaul to a .000 hitting percentage … Kim Kristoff helped propel Notre Dame to a 3-0 sweep in 2007 with five service aces, as Notre Dame coasted to post the widest margin of victory in the program’s history … the fifty-point spread was six morethan the total number of points the Irish put on the board against Loyola in 2002 … a stifling Irish defense limited DePaul to a -.034 hitting percentage for the match, including a pair of sub .000 games … it was the first timeNotre Dame held an opponent under .000 hitting since Cincinnati finished with a -.057 mark in a 2005 match … Notre Dame and DePaul played the fastest match in Irish history – a 40-minute affair – on Sept. 26, 1995 … DePaul’s lastvictory against Notre Dame was a 3-1 win in the 1991 Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio, which was also the last time DePaul won a set against Notre Dame … the schools first met in the 1983 Xavier Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Blue Demons pulling out a 2-0 win … the first Irish win came oneyear later in a 3-0 home decision … Mary Kay Waller had 12 kills and no errors on 13 attempts for a .923 hitting percentage in a 1986 match that still stands as the highest-ever for an Irish player in any length match … in 1995, the Blue Demons finished with a -.110 hitting percentage (17 K, 25 E, 73 A), the lowest ever by an Irish opponent.

– It was a long, strange trip when Notre Dame last traveled to Hawai’i in 2006 … not only did the Irish experience an earthquake when they arrived to the island, but the host Rainbows sent the visitors back to the mainland with a pair of losses … Notre Dame won the first meeting between the schools in 1992 but has dropped each of the last seven matchups … each of the eight meetings have come in the form of back-to-back contests on Hawai’i’s home floor.

– Notre Dame went 2-0 during its first BIG EAST roadswing with wins at Pittsburgh and West Virginia (Oct. 8-9) … paving the way for the Irish over host West Virginia was senior Kristen Dealy and her 16 kills … in fact, Dealy hit an eye-popping .533 on the day without an error in 30 attempts … Dealy also added six digs and a pair of blocks for Notre Dame, which snapped a three-match skid with the two wins … after falling behind, 3-0, in the third set against the Mountaineers, Notre Dame proceeded to go on an 18-1 jaunt to answer WVU’s opening spurt … freshman Toni Alugbue, who was named to the BIG EAST Honor Roll, had nine kills in each of the two outings while hitting at a .614 rate against the Panthers.

– Each of Notre Dame’s three league losses have been of the 3-1 variety, while its three wins have come in the form of 3-0 sweeps.

– The Irish dropped each of their two matches while playing host to Cincinnati and Louisville (Oct. 1-2) … with its league record at 1-3, Notre Dame fell under the .500 mark for the first time since joining the BIG EAST in 1995 (save for a loss to start BIG EAST play at Pittsburgh in 2007) … three of the four sets in the match against Cincinnati were decided by three or fewer points,with Notre Dame having set-point in the first two frames before Cincinnati went on a pair of 3-0 runs to win each stanza … senior Kristen Dealy had 11 kills (.257) and 14 digs with sophomore Sammie Brown adding 35 assists and 14 digs against the Bearcats … no one covered as much ground as senior Frenchy Silva in that contest, who was good for a game-high 24 scoops for her second straight 20+ dig performance … sophomore Andrea McHugh led the Irish with 17 kills and freshman Jeni Houser posted 13 more (.333) with four blocks.

– Notre Dame went 1-1 with a loss to Villanova after sweeping Georgetown to open BIG EAST play (Sept. 24-25) … junior Hilary Eppink posted a team-high 10 kills on a .556 clip against the Hoyas … Eppink did not commit an error on 18 swings … Notre Dame stumbled out of the gate and never fully recovered against Villanova … hitting .094 with 11 service errors, Notre Dame fell to the Wildcats, 3-1, during the nationally televised contest on ESPNU with 1,337 fans on hand to watch at Purcell Pavilion … the two teams combined for 23service errors and Notre Dame failed to record an ace for the first time since facing Northern Iowa on Nov. 7, 2010 … senior Kristen Dealy (25) and Frenchy Silva (22) each eclipsed the 20-dig plateau.

– One day after redeeming a 2010 loss to Western Michigan, Notre Dame swept host Wisconsin to claim the team title at the InnTowner Invitational … senior Kristen Dealy earned MVP honors with senior Frenchy Silva and junior HilaryEppink earning all-tournament nods … the win on Wisconsin’s home floor was the first ever for the Irish, also giving Notre Dame its first back-to-backwins over the Badgers in the history of the 10-match series.

– Senior Kristen Dealy earned MVP honors at the InnTowner Invite after a strong showing across the board with 3.00 kills/set, 4.29 digs/set and 3.57 points/set.

– Notre Dame’s 1,000-1,000 club inducted a new member in senior Kristen Dealyduring a Sept. 16 match against Western Michigan … now with more than 1,000 career kills and 1,000 digs, Dealy is the eighth Irish player ever to join the club and the first since Adrianna Stasiuk did so in 2007.

– Notre Dame is 15-1 all-time in BIG EAST regular-season openers, with the lone loss coming at Pittsburgh to begin the 2007 league slate … all said and done, the Irish are 172-25 (.873) in regular-season play since joining the BIG EAST, including a home record of 95-8 (.922).

– Freshman Jeni Houser was named MVP of the Golden Dome Invitational after leading all players at the four-team event in hitting (.348), kills/set (3.82) and points/set (4.36) … Houser matched a career-high with 19 kills against Portland (Sept. 10) as Notre Dame went 2-1 on the weekend.

– Freshman Toni Alugbue and sophomore Andrea McHugh were named to the Golden Dome Invitational all-tournament team … Alugbue averaged 1.36 blocks/set on the weekend and McHugh shelved a pair of double-doubles and dropped four aces on Portland (Sept. 10).

– A highly efficient and balanced offensive output from Notre Dame helped produce a 3-0 win over visiting Lipscomb (Sept. 9) as the Irish hit .549 as a squad, committing just two errors on 91 swings with 52 kills … with the effort from above the net, Notre Dame set a program record for hitting pct. in a three-set match … the previous best (.539) was set against Marquette in 1986 … it was also the first time the Irish hit over .500 in a contest since a 3-0 win versus DePaul in 2005 … even more, Notre Dame’s side-out pct. on the evening was.840, which included a 12-for-12 effort in the first set.

– Sophomore Sammie Brown became the 11th player in Notre Dame history to record at least 1,000 assists in a career, doing so with a 32-assist effort against Portland (Sept. 10).

– Notre Dame dropped each of its two matches at the Stanford Invitational (Sept. 2-3), falling to both the host Cardinal and St. Mary’s (Calif.).

– Freshman Jeni Houser pounded No. 6 Stanford for a team- and career-high 19 kills … the slugger averaged 3.57 kills/set in the two matches on the West Coast to earn a spot on the Stanford Invitational All-Tournament team.

– Notre Dame opened the season with three wins at the Shamrock Invitational (Aug. 26-28) for its best start to a campaign since 2006 … Notre Dame dropped the second set in each of its 3-1 wins over Eastern Michigan, Idaho and Butler … the victory over Butler was the program’s 300th home win … Notre Dame is 302-95 (.760) all-time on its home floor.

– Senior Frenchy Silva, junior Hilary Eppink and sophomore Andrea McHugh wereeach named to the Shamrock Invitational All-Tournament team … in fact, McHugh was named the tournament’s MVP one day prior to shelving Player of the Weekhonors from the BIG EAST Conference … McHugh led the Irish with 58 kills in three tournament matches and posted a career-best 25 kills to go along with 13 digs against Idaho … McHugh averaged 4.83 kills and 3.92 digs/set while recording double-digit kills in all three weekend matches.

– A 22-dig performance against Butler (Aug. 28) put senior Frenchy Silva over the 1,000-mark for her career … what’s more, Silva’s 3.36 digs/set average isfourth all-time, and senior Kristen Dealy’s 3.06 digs/set clip ranks fifth … that makes the duo the only classmates ever to rank among the top 10 in digs/set.

– With an Aug. 26 win over Eastern Michigan to begin the 2011 campaign, NotreDame is 25-7 (20-1 under head coach Debbie Brown) in home openers.

– Notre Dame was picked to finish second in league play according to the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches Poll … the Irish received one first-place vote.

– Co-captains for the 2011 season are seniors Kristen Dealy and Frenchy Silva.

– Senior Kristen Dealy was a preseason all-BIG EAST choice along with sophomore Andrea McHugh.

–ND–