Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Irish Top Pittsburgh In Five

November 14, 1998

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – – With the BIG EAST title and top seed at the BIG EAST Tournament on the line, the Notre Dame women’s volleyball team just got by Pittsburgh 15-10, 15-11, 9-15, 4-15, 21-19 in the second to last regular season BIG EAST match up.

So far this season, the Irish had come out on the losing end in three matches that were determined by only two points in the fifth game. Notre Dame lost back-to-back five game decisions to Connecticut (14-16 in game five) and Fairfield (15-17), and more recently, fell in game five to Oral Roberts by the score of 13-15. This time, however, the Irish pulled out the win in the rally-scoring fifth game to move to 13-11 overall, 9-1 in the BIG EAST.

Notre Dame was led offensively by opposite Emily Schiebout (Blaine, Minn.), who had 16 kills. Freshman Marcie Bomhack (Waukesha, Wis.) added 14 kills and sophomore Christi Girton (Muncie, Ind.) had 13 kills. Senior captain Lindsay Treadwell (Austin, Texas) added a season-high 19 digs and posted a team-high five blocks. Michelle Graham (Austin, Texas), who started her sixth-straight match for the injured Denise Boylan (Lisle, Ill.), contributed 42 assists and 10 digs.

The Panthers, meanwhile, played a hard fought game. With a 4-5 conference record coming into the match, Pittsburgh knew that it had to pick up a win to better its chances at advancing to next weekend’s BIG EAST Tournament. The Panthers fell to 15-13 overall, 4-6 in the BIG EAST, despite getting outstanding performances from Melissa Alpers (17 kills, 16 digs), Marcie Thiesen (12 kills, 14 digs, six blocks) and Paula Zemrowski (16 kills).

The Irish play their final regular season BIG EAST match tomorrow at West Virginia at 1 p.m., before coming home for their last home match against Toledo on Wednesday, November 18 at 7 p.m.