Sept. 27, 2005
CHICAGO, Ill. – Senior OH Lauren Kelbley (Bascom, Ohio/Hopewell-Loudon H.S.) pounded 24 kills on .688 hitting to lead an impressive offensive performance, as the 10th-ranked University of Notre Dame women’s volleyball team (9-1) defeated Loyola Chicago (3-10) 30-15, 30-15, 30-24 on Tuesday evening in Alumni Gym. The Irish hit a season-high .385 as a team, and Kelbley fell just one kill shy of the school record for kills in a three-game affair.
The Irish senior, who was honorable mention All-America in both 2003 and `04 and stands as the only Division I hitter to have been AVCA all-region in each of the last three years, turned in one of her best performances since making the move from middle blocker to outside hitter late in her sophomore season. Kelbley converted 75% of her 32 swings and made just two errors. Her hitting percentage was by far the best for any Irish player this season and was tops since Sept. 28, 2003, when she turned posted a career-best .706 attack percentage with 12 kills on 17 errorless swings against Georgetown. Tuesday marked the eighth time in Kelbley’s career that she has hit .600 or better. Most of her high-efficiency outputs came during her first two seasons, when she was a middle blocker; her previous high attack percentage as an outside hitter was .474 (12 kills, three errors, 19 attempts) against St. John’s on Oct. 9, 2004.
Kelbley fell just one shy of her career high (in any-length match) in kills, but posted 20+ for the ninth time in her career, moving her into a fifth-place tie with Kristy Kreher (1998-2001) on the Irish all-time list in that category. It was the fourth time – and first since Emily Loomis did so against Valparaiso on Sept. 9, 2003 – a Notre Dame player had 24 or more kills in a three-game match. Only once has an Irish competitor had 25 in a 3-0 affair, which current AVP professional Angie Harris did against Colorado on Sept. 15, 1995. Kelbley did post a career high in points with 31, besting her output of 29 in the four-game upset of #8 USC earlier this month.
After the offense had largely struggled over the first eight matches of the season, sophomore setter Ashley Tarutis’ (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos H.S.) attack has found its rhythm over the past two matches after Irish head coach Debbie Brown made some lineup changes. Tuesday’s performance marked the highest team hitting mark for Notre Dame since hitting .469 against Seton Hall on Oct. 10, 2003. It came on the heels of a .319 hitting match against Seton Hall on Sunday. Perhaps the most impressive thing is the consistency of the attack, as Notre Dame has now hit over .270 in each of its last six games, including .310+ in five of them. In the first game on Tuesday, ND had 22 kills and just three errors on 36 swings for a .528 attack percentage.
In addition to Kelbley’s dominating play, senior MB Carolyn Cooper (Houston, Texas/Lutheran South Academy) posted 10 kills on career-best .562 hitting. It marked the fifth time in her career that Cooper hit double digits in kills. Her previous career high in attack percentage was .524 (11 kills, no errors, 21 attempts) against Boston College in the semifinals of last year’s BIG EAST Conference Championship.
Senior MB Lauren Brewster (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood H.S.) added 11 kills for Notre Dame, her 13th time with double-digit kills in the last 14 contests. Sophomore OH Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South H.S.) also notched six kills.
Even though it was the offense that was flashy, Notre Dame’s defense was effective, holding Loyola to just 33 kills and 22 errors for a .096 hitting mark, the second-lowest total of the season for an Irish opponent. The ND defense has allowed just one team to hit better than .200 against it in 2005. Senior co-captain L Meg Henican (New Orleans, La./Isidore Newman H.S.) had 22 digs to lead the Irish. She has now had 20+ digs 20 times in her career, including on three occasions this season.
Cooper – who came into the week atop the BIG EAST Conference leaders – led all players in blocks with five, including two of the solo variety. Three Irish players – Kelbley, Brewster, and Stasiuk – were in on four blocks apiece. Notre Dame finished with 12.5 blocks as a team, the 10th consecutive match with 10 or more team blocks.
The Irish continued to be strong in the service game, finishing with seven aces and only five service errors. Kelbley led the way with four aces and not a single error, while Tarutis added two aces and Cooper one.
The match lasted just 1:16, making it the quickest since a sweep of Seton Hall in 2002 that lasted just 74 minutes. In all, only three matches played under the current rally-scoring format have been faster than Tuesday’s contest.
Notre Dame’s first two games – which saw the Irish hit .479 as a team – comprised one of the most-dominating two-game performances in program history. The 30-point margin of victory in the games is the largest ever in the opening two games of a match, topping the 29-point advantage (15-0, 15-1) at DePaul in the first two games of the 1986 North Star Conference Championship semifinals. The 36-point margin for the match was the largest for ND since beating St. John’s by 37 (30-16, 30-17, 30-20) on Oct. 24, 2004.
The Irish have won 10 in a row against the Ramblers, dating back to 1990. Tuesday marked the first trip to Loyola Chicago since 1994 and the first match played by the Notre Dame volleyball team in the nation’s third-largest city since ’96. ND and the Ramblers were formerly rivals in both the North Star and Midwestern Collegiate Conferences.
The match was the first time new Loyola head coach Marcie Bomhack faced her alma mater from the opposing bench. She was a standout for Brown and the Irish from 1998-2001, finishing her career with 1,016 kills and 704 digs. Bomhack has her Ramblers in a three-way tie atop the Horizon League standings following one weekend of conference action. Loyola registered a pair of 3-0 victories last weekend, beating both Wisconsin-Green Bay and defending regular-season league champ Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The latter contest was a matchup of the only two Notre Dame graduates who currently hold Division I head-coaching positions in volleyball, as Bomhack bested the Panthers’ leader, Kathy Cunningham-Litzau, who played for the Irish from 1986-89, ending her career with 928 kills and 936 digs. Cunningham still holds the Notre Dame record for kills in a match, 33 against William & Mary in 1987.
Loyola was led by junior OH Courtney Ashley, who had a team-high 10 kills. Junior libero Ann Deelo was the only Rambler in double figures in digs, finishing with 10.
The opening game was tight early, as Loyola actually took the lead – its only advantage of the game – at 7-6, but that was met by a 7-0 Irish run that put Notre Dame ahead for good. ND finished the game on an 11-3 run. The story of the game was outstanding offensive play for the Irish, who had 22 kills and just three errors on 36 attempts for a .528 attack percentage, by far the best in any game this season. Kelbley led the way with eight kills and no errors on 10 swings, while Cooper had five kills on six errorless tries, and Brewster added five kills, as well. Notre Dame held Loyola to only 10 kills on .118 hitting, as Henican led the way with six digs.
Notre Dame kept rolling in game two, slowing edging ahead early and then using a 12-3 run to go up by 14 (26-12) and put the game away. The Irish continued to be outstanding offensively, finishing with 13 kills and only two errors on 29 attempts for a .379 hitting mark. ND’s defense used four blocks to keep Loyola to just .098 hitting in the game.
The Ramblers came out of the locker room a different team, taking an 11-1 advantage in the third game, the largest deficit Notre Dame had faced all season. Trailing 12-2, the Irish responded with a 16-2 run of their own to take control of the game and earn their sixth 3-0 victory in 10 matches this season. Kelbley was the catalyst of the comeback, hitting 12 kills on 17 attempts (.588) in the game. The Irish have now trailed by eight points or more in a game on four occasions this season, but have come back to win three of those frames: game two vs. USC, game one vs. Tulane, and game three on Tuesday.
Notre Dame will continue to be both busy and away from home, as the Irish will next head out of town this weekend for a pair of BIG EAST Conference matches. ND will first play at Syracuse on Friday in a battle of league unbeatens before heading to new conference member Marquette on Sunday in what will be the first Irish volleyball match in Milwaukee since 1986.
#10 Notre Dame (9-1) 30-30-30Loyola Chicago (3-10) 15-15-24
Kills: ND 55 (Kelbley 24), LUC 33 (Ashley 10)Attack Percentage: ND .385 (Kelbley .688), LUC .096 (Elmer .273)Assists: ND 49 (Tarutis 41), LUC 30 (Elmer 22)Service Aces-Errors: ND 7-5 (Kelbley 4), LUC 2-3 (White 2)Digs: ND 51 (Henican 22), LUC 37 (Deelo 10)Blocks: ND 12.5 (Cooper 5), LUC 5 (three players, 2)Points: ND 74.5 (Kelbley 31), LUC 40 (Ashley 10)Attendance: 572