Nov. 18, 2006
CINCINNATI, Ohio- Sophomore Mallorie Croal (Villa Park, Calif./Villa Park) continued to excel in the BIG EAST Championship, as she led the fifth-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish (18-11, 10-4 BIG EAST) with 16 kills and also tallied 19 digs in an upset of top-seeded No. 24 St. John’s (30-2, 14-0 BIG EAST) on Saturday, Nov. 18 in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Championship at the Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. The game scores went 30-23, 30-28, 28-30, 30-20. This was only the second loss of the season for St. John’s with the other one coming at the hands No. 4 USC. The Irish will advance to take on Louisville in the championship match on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 4 p.m. The match will be shown live on CSTV.
Croal, besides the 16 kills also totaled three blocks while hitting a solid .361. Serinity Phillips (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center) also had a great effort with 14 kills, four digs, and eight blocks for 18.5 points. The eight blocks tied her career-high. Fellow freshman Christina Kaelin (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) contributed 14 kills for 14.5 points. Sophomore Justine Stremick (Langdon, N.D./Langdon Area) aided the Irish control the nets with seven blocks. Both Irish setters reached double figures in assists. Junior Ashley Tarutis (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) tallied 34 assists while freshman Jamel Nicholas (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) had 25 helpers. Junior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) had eight kills and 15 digs for nine points.
The Irish capitalizing on the momentum built from the previous evening’s emotional win over Cincinnati and started the first game well, jumping out to a 6-1 lead on a Stasiuk service ace. The Irish advantage reached eight on block from freshman Kim Kristoff (Carmel, Ind./Brebeuf Jesuit Prep) forcing the first St. John’s timeout. The Irish kept rolling after the stoppage of play and grew the lead to 10 at 13-3 on a block assist from Phillips and Kristoff. St. John’s would rally and cut the margin to five on Latoya Blunt’s kill at 17-12. Notre Dame would counter and put together a 5-2 run to again extend the advantage to seven, capped off by a Stasiuk kill. The Red Storm would rally and cut the margin to five on the Patti Hardimon block at 25-20. After a Notre Dame timeout, Kaelin would get into the act with a kill to make the score 27-21. Another Kaelin wallop ended the first game in a Notre Dame 30-23 victory. The Irish outhit St. John’s .261 to .080 in the first game.
The second game started with St. John’s taking the early lead, 6-2, on an ace from Wioleta Leszczynska. The Irish finally caught up at seven on the Kaelin kill. After another tied score at nine, the Red Storm rallied and went on a 3-0 run to take three-point advantage. Notre Dame countered and tied the game at 13 on a Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) kill. The Red Storm, behind a pair of Hardimon kills, reeled off an 8-5 run to take a 21-18 lead. After a Notre Dame timeout, the Irish cut the lead down to two on a Kaelin kill at 24-22. After another stoppage of play, Notre Dame finally tied the game at 26 on back-to-back Tarutis service aces. The game remained tied at 28 when the Irish looked within and finished the game off on back-to-back kills from Stasiuk and Phillips. In the 30-28 victory, the Irish were victorious despite being outhit by the Red Storm .350 to .205.
A block assist from Stremick and Phillips gave Notre Dame the early 5-2 lead in the third game. After the Red Storm rallied to tie the game at five, a Stremick kill gave Notre Dame the 6-5 advantage. A 4-1 Red Storm run gave St. John’s its first lead of the game at 9-7 and forced the first Notre Dame timeout. Notre Dame rallied and tied the score at 11 on the Croal kill. Notre Dame took a brief two-point lead on the kill from Kaelin, only to see the Red Storm rally and take the lead back at 15-14. The St. John’s lead went as high as three, before the Irish rallied and tied the game at 18 on the block assist from Stremick and Phillips. Hardimon tied the game up at 20 with her back-to-back kills. The last 18 points were a battle, as there were seven tied scores, before a Notre Dame service error finished off the match in a 28-30 defeat.
A Croal service ace allowed Notre Dame to open up an early three-point advantage in the fourth game at 5-2. Another Croal kill extended the Irish advantage to four at 10-6. A Kristoff and Phillips stuffing allowed Notre Dame to open up a seven-point lead at 15-8. The Phillips’ show continued with three kills in four possessions to allow Notre Dame to see its lead grown to 10. The lead stayed around 10, until a Kaelin kill upped the Notre Dame lead to 12 at 26-14. The Red Storm would make one final push and closed to within nine on the kill from Hui Ping Huang at 26-17. After a Notre Dame stoppage of play, the Irish rallied and outlast the surging Red Storm for a 30-20 victory.
Note: The Irish are now 7-2 in four game sets this season … Croal has tallied 41 kills in the two matches in the BIG EAST Championship this season … Notre Dame will now have a rematch of the 2005 BIG EAST Championship game against Louisville on Nov. 19 … this was Notre Dame’s first win over a ranked opponent this season