Junior Justine Stremick put together a season-best 13 kills to go along with five blocks Friday against Missouri.

Irish Fall 3-0 Against Missouri, Face Florida International On Saturday

Aug. 31, 2007

Final Stats
Box Score (PDF)
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COLUMBIA, Mo. – Even though a quartet of Irish players recorded double-digit kills against Missouri on Friday night, the University of Notre Dame volleyball team fell to the Tigers 3-0 (31-29, 30-25, 30-23) in front of 1,383 fans at the Hearnes Center.

The Fighting Irish (0-3) will try to capture their first win of the season over Florida International in ND’s final game of the Tiger Invitational on Saturday (Sept. 1) at 7:30 p.m. (ET).

Junior Justine Stremick (Langdon, N.D./Langdon Area), sophomores Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) and Serinity Phillips (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center), and senior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) paced the Irish in kills with 13, 14, 11, and 10, respectively. Stremick registering a team-best .435 clip and also added five blocks.

The Tigers’ Na Yang led all players with 22 kills on a .500 average as Missouri out-hit Notre Dame .276 to .231 in the match.

Phillips had seven of her team’s 16 kills in game three when Missouri (3-1) shot out to a 6-1 lead – with the lone Irish point coming off a Phillips kill – before a pair of Stasiuk kills cut the spread to three before the Tigers surged back ahead, 12-4.

After fighting back to bring the score to 15-10, Irish freshman Kellie Sciacca (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) delivered what would have been a kill to bring ND within four, but her attempt was later judged to be out of bounds. Missouri picked up the next point with Yang’s kill to go ahead by seven. Notre Dame would come within six points (27-21, 28-22) thanks to a slew of kills by Phillips before Missouri closed the door on the win.

Down 7-4 in game one, Fesl’s kill and seniorAshley Tarutis (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) ace left the Irish behind by one. Stasiuk would tie it at 8-8 with a kill, which was the first of 19 draws over the course of the match. The Tigers would later rattle off three-straight to jump ahead, 18-15, and rode that momentum out of a timeout to take a 20-15 advantage. Fesl and Stasiuk teamed up for a couple more kills to cut the deficit to three. Later, Missouri’s chance to seal the deal was cut short by Fesl’s kill to bring the Irish within a single score, 29-28, and she would tally another kill to tie the count at 29-29. But Tatum Ailes was able to sneak one by the Irish defense to notch the 31-29 win for the Tigers.

Stasiuk had 12 of her 21 digs in the frame while Fesl totaled nine kills on 13 swings. Sciacca and Stremick each got their hands on three blocks.

The squads traded the lead six times in game two while knotting the score 11 times over that stretch. Behind 12-10, Stasiuk fired away two kills to swing the momentum back in favor of the Irish, including an attack off Lei Weng’s head that was saved by the Tigers but Stasiuk capitalized on her second chance with a rocket to the opposite corner. Yang proved to be too much for Notre Dame in the game, connecting on eight kills in 11 chances for a .727 average, including six of the Tigers’ final 10 points.

With her 47 assists, Tarutis was able to pass Kristen Kinder (2000-03) for third-place on the school’s all-time assist list. Stasiuk and her 21 digs moved her ahead of Jaimie Lee (1994-97) and into sixth-place for career digs.

–ND–