Oct. 1, 2010
TAMPA, Fla. – Freshman Andrea McHugh had 13 kills and a career-high five aces as Notre Dame picked up a 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-20) BIG EAST Conference volleyball win over USF at The Corral Friday evening. The Irish were playing in the program’s 1,000th match and improved to 10-5 overall and 3-0 against league opponents, running their streak of regular-season conference victories to 18 (dating back to the 2008 season).
McHugh hit .379 and was flanked by senior Kellie Sciacca’s nine kills on a .412 clip. Junior Kristen Dealy had six kills, two aces and nine digs. Junior Frenchy Silva led the Irish with 11 digs.
USF (6-8, 2-1) received nine kills from both Allie Boaz and Andrea Gomez
McHugh aced USF on the first play of the match but Notre Dame’s 11-4 lead in the first was wiped away. A fourth straight Irish hitting error tied it at 15-15 during an 11-4 Bull run. USF took the lead again but Notre Dame found Dealy and McHugh on the outsides to score on nine of the final 11 rallies to win the opening frame. McHugh bounced her sixth kill of the night on set point.
The first four points of the second set went to the Irish behind two more McHugh aces, and Tampa native Christina Theofilos laid down another from behind the service stripe to give the visitors a 9-6 lead. Notre Dame escaped from an 11-11 tie to post three unanswered, including a big block at 14-11 as sophomore Hilary Eppink clogged the middle on an Erika DeVaughn attack. USF closed to within 16-15 before a Dealy ace spurred a 4-0 run to put the set out of reach. At 20-17, the Irish scored the final five straight to take a 2-0 lead.
McHugh had 10 kills on 17 errorless swings (.588) with four aces through two sets played, as Notre Dame carried a .412 hitting average into intermission. Notre Dame hit .478 in the second set and .295 on the evening.
USF maintained a three-point lead for most of the third set and Notre Dame scratched back to tie it at 17-17. The Bulls scored the next pair and the Irish knotted the count at 20-20 on a McHugh kill. She added an ace to give Notre Dame a 21-20 advantage, and freshman Sam Brown paired with Eppink for the final two kills to end a 5-0 Irish run.
Notre Dame travels to Georgetown (Oct. 3) to continue BIG EAST play. Live stats will be available at UND.com.
–ND–