Head coach Debbie Brown and her staff have the 16th ranked recruiting class in the country coming to play for the Irish in 2014 according to Prep Volleyball.

Incoming Class Ranked 16th By Prep Volleyball; Earn HM Honors Through Volleyball Magazine

May 27, 2014

Prep Volleyball Release (Paid Website)

Volleyball Magazine Release

Original Release (Dilfer / Fry / Kuhn / Plumlee)

Second Release (Johnson / Kremer)

Kremer Named Sand Volleyball All-American

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Prep Volleyball’s annual ranking of the top incoming recruiting classes in the country has the University of Notre Dame’s six-person incoming class as the 16th best in the nation, the website announced recently. In addition, Volleyball Magazine gave the Irish honorable mention honors along with 14 other schools that weren’t ranked in the magazine’s top 10.

Incoming Irish freshmen Maddie Dilfer, Sam Fry, Natalie Johnson, Jo Kremer, Sydney Kuhn and Maddie Plumlee make up the only class in the Atlantic Coast Conference to be ranked in the Prep Volleyball top 30. Only ACC programs Duke and North Carolina joined the Irish in the honorable mention category for Volleyball Magazine.

Among the on the court highlights of the class are three Under Armour honorable mention All-Americans (Dilfer – 2X, Fry and Plumlee – 1X) and first team AVCA sand volleyball All-American Kremer.

Here is what Prep Volleyball had to say about the class of 2018:

The Fighting Irish has a seasoned and gritty group heading for South Bend. By position they almost have a complete starting six and Fry, Kremer and Plumlee have proven to play at an elite level in a couple of positions. Dilfer was a setter/hitter for Valley Christian HS, which won its first California state championship this past December. No. 55 in PrepVolleyball.com’s Senior Aces, she is a fighter who won’t give less than all she’s got and is a strong natural leader who helped Vision 18 Gold win two national qualifiers this season. Like Dilfer, Fry has a state championship on her resume to go along with being First Team All-State. A strong and quick athlete, Fry now holds her school career record for kills and blocks. Johnson anchored the Libero position for her San Gabriel Elite 17s team that won bronze last year at Junior Nationals in the Open division. Johnson, named Prep League MVP this year as she moved to the outside hitter spot, led Mayfield HS to the CIF-SS finals in Class 2A. Kremer, an elite level Sand player (2013 USA U-19 Youth Beach Volleyball National Team), also has an impressive Indoor game. Kremer was Mission League MVP and led her Indoor Harvard Westlake squad to the CIF SS finals in Class 1A. Kuhn was named to the all-tournament team after helping Kapaun-Mt. Carmel finish third in the state. Kuhn, All State in Basketball as well, captured the state title her junior year and won the Wendy’s High School Heisman as a senior. Plumlee, named a Second Team Under Armour All-America, totaled 514 kills as a senior to earn TISAC Conference Player of the Year. Plumlee, who has two brothers in the NBA, has always played up an age group for well-regarded Triangle VBC.

For more information on the Notre Dame volleyball program, follow the Irish on Facebook (/NDVolleyball) and Twitter (@NDVolleyball).

–Russell Dorn, Assistant Media Relations Director

–ND–