Aug. 22, 2007
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Most any other college volleyball coach in the nation would be content with an 18-14 season that featured a runner-up finish in the conference tournament and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. But not University of Notre Dame head coach Debbie Brown.
Brown has brought out the big guns since leaving the 2006 BIG EAST Tournament without the league’s crown for only the third time since joining the conference in 1995. Accompanying her on the trek to get back on top is a new face on the coaching staff, a pair of three-year starters, two all-conference juniors, an experienced six-member sophomore class, and a freshman that was one of the nation’s most coveted recruits as a prep.
The Outlook
Notre Dame is favored to win the 2007 BIG EAST regular-season title after receiving eight first-place nods as voted on by league head coaches, narrowly topping defending champion Louisville by one point. The Fighting Irish are viewed as the team to beat for the second consecutive year, despite ending the 2006 regular season tied for third after going 10-4 in conference play.
“The teams in the BIG EAST Conference are greatly improved, which is quite apparent with three teams from the conference being selected to the NCAA Tournament last season,” Brown emphasized. “Each team seems to be getting better and better and our conference competition is as strong as ever, which is great for our program. We’ll have our work cut out for us, but just like any other year, we’re going into this one set on winning the regular season and conference titles. It’s getting harder and harder for us to do that, but we’re committed to the challenge.”
Seniors Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) and Ashley Tarutis (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) look to lead Notre Dame back to the BIG EAST Championship for the fourth time in as many seasons. Stasiuk, a 2006 all-BIG EAST first team selection, and junior outside hitter Mallorie Croal (Villa Park, Calif./Mater Dei) – who was also a first-teamer last season – were both named to the 2007 all-BIG EAST preseason squad. Stasiuk was one of five unanimous selections, joining Kimberley Todd (Marquette), Diana Andreyko (Pittsburgh), and preseason co-players of the year Hui Ping Huang (St. John’s) and Tatyana Kolesnikova (Louisville).
Louisville received seven first-place votes after coming off a 25-7 campaign in 2006 and winning the program’s first BIG EAST Tournament title. Led by Huang, St. John’s was tabbed to finish third on the heels of posting a 31-5 record and taking home the league’s regular season crown with a perfect 14-0 record.
The Schedule
Brown and the Irish set to face 14 teams that earned bids to the 2006 NCAA Tournament and host No. 9 Minnesota and No. 6 Florida in the season’s opening weekend. The Golden Gophers were ranked in the final 2006 CSTV/AVCA poll and are one of just three teams in the nation to have been ranked No. 6 or higher in the final poll in three of the four seasons since 2003. In fact, the Golden Gophers advanced to the NCAA Regional Finals for the third time in four years and broke No. 7 Florida’s 24-match NCAA Tournament home-winning streak before falling to eventual national champion Nebraska.
Not only does Notre Dame face two top-10 squads in the season’s first weekend, but seven of its 13 non-conference opponents were ranked among the nation’s top 25 in the CSTV/AVCA Coaches Preseason Poll. Additionally, three more non-conference foes along with Louisville and St. John’s received votes in the standings (as did Notre Dame). The RichKern.com Poll has eight future Irish opponents in its top-30, with five more appearing within the following 10 spots.
The Irish have never dropped a home opener under Brown since she took over the program in 1991, and have a history of firing out of the game early against ranked opponents. The last time ND took on ranked teams in consecutive matches to open a season was when an unranked Irish team traveled to the Four Points Sheraton Classic in Malibu, Calif., to start the 2003 operation. They beat #10 Arizona, 3-1, before losing to host Pepperdine, who was ranked 5th-best in the nation. In the following week’s poll, Notre Dame jumped to the 21st spot and would eventually trek all the way up to No. 12 in the nation by November.
“I feel our 2007 schedule is very balanced and conducive to us doing well throughout the season,” Brown said. “I’m very excited about the overall strength of the schedule with 14 teams that earned bids in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. This schedule is essential for both the growth and development of our program.
“We start the season at home against two very strong, perennial top 20 programs in Minnesota and Florida. Combine those two matches with the teams we are playing in the three early season invitationals, then add in LSU in the middle of the year, and we have quite an impressive non-conference schedule. We feel like we have to take those first few weeks of the season and put together the strongest schedule we can. This is the type of schedule we need to play so we are playing our best volleyball at the right time in late November and early December.”
The Returners
In 2006, the Irish were without five starters from a squad that posted a 30-4 mark one season prior. But six starters that saw significant action last year are back for the most recent Irish campaign. Among the six are seniors Stasiuk and Tarutis, both of whom have been major contributors for the Irish since stepping foot on campus in 2004.
Stasiuk, an outside hitter, is Notre Dame’s best all-around player and will serve as team captain this season. Last year she was the team leader in kills (7 times), digs (4), aces (4) and points (9). The Park Ridge, Ill., native had 18 double figure kills matches and 24 double figure dig matches to put her at the #7 spot on the program’s single season list. Statsiuk comes off a junior year that saw her earn a spot on the all-BIG EAST first-team and the ESPN The Magazine District V Academic team. Her streak of 10 consecutive matches with 10+ digs from Sept. 17-Oct. 20 tied her for the fourth longest streak in the Notre Dame record book, while she also combined with teammate Danielle Herndon for 936 digs, which is the second highest total for an Irish pair.
Complimenting Stasiuk is the fiery play of co-assistant captain Tarutis, who has seen action in each of Notre Dame’s 350 games over the past three seasons. During her junior affair she led the team in service aces with 31 (0.27 per game) and reached double figures in assists in all 32 matches. Her team-leading 860 assists (7.54) helped Notre Dame rank second among BIG EAST squads is that category with 14.78 per game in league contests. Tarutis climbed all the way up to No. 4 on the all-time assist list, trailing third-place by only 113 dish-outs.
“We’re could not have been more fortunate to have such a strong senior class,” Brown said. “With Ashley and Adrianna starting all four years since they’ve been here, their court experience is tremendous. But more than anything, both are great competitors and they bring that out in their teammates, and that’s something we’re looking forward to seeing.
“Adrianna is our best all-around player and will be on the court all the time. She leads by example, whereas Ashley is an emotional leader and her gritty play gets everyone fired up. They’re a great combination.”
Madison Clark (Sturgis, Mich./Sturgis) joins Croal and Justine Stremick (Langdon, N.D./Langdon Area) – both of whom earned all-BIG EAST honors in 2006 – to round out a three-person junior class. Croal will be a co-assistant captain for the Irish, making herself and Tarutis the first in Notre Dame history to hold such a position.
“This is the first year we’ve had assistant captains,” noted Brown. “Instead of going with tri-captains, we implemented this to develop leadership on the team and perhaps groom some younger players for the future position.”
Clark continues to punch in solid efforts for the Irish when called upon and gives the team the luxury of working as a setter or defensive specialist. Perhaps one of the most improved players over the summer, she totaled 14 digs (0.48 per game) and had a .941 service percentage in 2006. With the capability of playing on the outside or at the opposite, Croal is a strong all-around player with good skills in the back row and on the front line. As a sophomore, she finished third on the squad with 315 kills and picked up a total of 76 blocks (0.72 per game). A first-team all-BIG EAST selection, her run of seven consecutive double-doubles to end the season was the second longest streak in the record books. As one of the strongest blockers on the squad, Stremick also paced the Irish with a .304 hitting percentage in 2006. And not only did she become the 12th player to record 12+ blocks in a match last season, but her .750 hitting percentage at South Florida was the highest for a Notre Dame player and second-best among league players on the season.
Five of the six rising sophomores broke a sweat in at least 80 of Notre Dame’s 114 games this past season. In fact, Brown believes that this class – which was ranked as the third best recruiting class nationally by Volleyball Magazine in 2006 – will play a huge role in the team’s success. “They got so much experience last season, with all of them playing a considerable amount,” she says. “Having this sophomore class step up this year and play like veterans should take this team a long way.”
The Fighting Irish used 11 different lineups in 2006, each of which utilized at least two of this year’s sophomores and as many as four members of the class started at the same time.
Outside hitter Christina Kaelin (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) had 26 blocks last season, 10 (38 percent) of which were solo, which was by far the largest percentage of solo blocks on the team. Kaelin also had five 20+-kill matches to finish tied for sixth-most in a single season. Notre Dame switched up its two setters – Jamel Nicholas (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) and Tarutis – throughout much of the season, where each one of them led the team in assists in at least 11 matches. Due in part to the two-setter approach, no individual setter was ranked among the top-10 in the BIG EAST but Notre Dame, as a team, ranked second (14.78) in the conference in assists. The hard-hitting Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./Maine South) slammed a career-best 16 kills and 18 points against Valparaiso and was sixth on the team with 201 kills (2.42 per game). Tara Enzweiler (Raleigh, N.C./Cardinal Gibbons), who began the 2006 season with a career-best seven blocks against Bowling Green, contributed 21 kills, 24 blocks (0.75 per game) and 37.5 points over the course of the year. Middle blocker Kim Kristoff (Carmel, Ind./Brebeuf Jesuit) earned starting nods 22 times to total 122 kills on a .229 hitting percentage, and was second on the team with 88 total blocks (0.92 per game). The Irish leaned heavily on the play of Serenity Philips (Vallen Center, Calif./Valley Center), who finished second on the team with a .258 hitting percentage.
The Freshmen
“We’re very excited with what our incoming freshmen have to bring,” noted Brown. “I look for them to add depth to the lineup and immediately compete for playing time. In having Kellie Sciacca (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) here, we now have four middle blockers training in the gym instead of three, which will pay its dividends.
Sciacca, who was ranked 22nd on PrepVolleyball.com’s Senior Aces list in 2006, joins classmates Megan Dunne (Palo Heights, Ill./Mother McAuley), Angela Puente (Redondo Beach, Calif./Bishop Montgomery), and Stephanie Slatt (Burien, Wash./John F. Kennedy) as Notre Dame’s four-deep freshmen class.
The Staff
Returning for his second season with the Irish is assistant coach Greg Smith, who came to Notre Dame from Virginia Tech prior to the 2006 season. He joins Brown on the bench along with a face familiar to Irish volleyball fans.
Lauren Brewster, a two-time All-American and one of the program’s most decorated players, is the latest addition to the Notre Dame coaching staff. Brewster will be responsible for working with the middle blockers, coordinating travel, and assisting with virtually all aspects within the Irish program.
Indeed, Brewster knows a thing or two about blocking after having been the NCAA’s leader in that category in 2003 while ranking among the nation’s top 25 leaders for four straight seasons. She was one of only five Division I players to be an AVCA All-American and CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2005, the same year she was on ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-America second-team. Those accomplishments made her one of fewer than 50 Notre Dame student-athletes in any sport to be an athletic and academic All-American.
Brewster graduated from the Mendoza College of Business with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and sociology. After graduating from Notre Dame in 2006 Brewster worked for Team Connection, an athletic apparel distributor based out of High Point, N.C., while leading sales and marketing initiates for its volleyball department.
Brown’s Position Breakdown
DS/L: “Losing Danielle Herndon was a big blow to the team, but having Madison, Megan, and Angela battle for playing time on the back line will be a healthy competition for our team.”
S: “Ashley and Jamel will handle all setting duties for us. They play so well together, and they compliment each other in many aspects. Each brings similar things to the team, but in a different way: Jamel is a good communicator on the floor and Ashley is more outward in how she displays her emotion.”
OH/OPP: “We have so many options with our outside hitters. I love the fact that all of them can play left or right – they’re pretty interchangeable. Megan Fesl and Serenity Phillips both play the right side really, really well. That lends us plenty of flexibility with how we work the lineup.”
MB: “I’m excited to be able to train with four middle blockers. Kim and Tara improved tremendously over the course of last season, and Justine continues to get better and better. The learning curve for Kellie will be sharp and fast, but she already plays at a high level and should adapt well to the college game.”
Game Notes (Aug. 24-26)
A Quick History Lesson … The Gophers have dropped the last two decisions in the five-match history of this series … Minnesota fell to the No. 17 Irish in the NCAA Tournament with a 3-2 first-round win at Minneapolis in 1993 … Notre Dame took the first meeting between the two squads, a 3-1 win at home in 1987 … the Gators are the first of four Florida schools to face the Irish in 2007 (along with Florida International, Florida A&M, and South Florida) … in the six-match history, both teams have been ranked on five occasions, when only No. 8 Florida carried a national ranking in 1998 … in 2005, No. 19 Notre Dame swept No. 6 Florida (30-28, 31-29, 30-28) in the UTSA Dome Rally in the Alamodome … the win made the Irish 6-0 to start the season, with three of those wins over top-15 teams … Notre Dame went into the weekend with just three all-time victories against teams ranked among the top eight in the nation and previously took down top-10 foes in the same month just once (No. 3 Nebraska and No. 9 Illinois in September of 1993) … the Gators, who had not been swept in more than two years, were the second-highest-ranked team ever to fall victim to Notre Dame … Florida, who was unanimously selected to claim the Southeastern Conference title, have been SEC Champions for 16 consecutive years … the Gators coming off their 16th straight 20-win season, and their 15th NCAA regional semifinal in the last 16 years … they return all seven starters from a 2006 SEC title team, and 90 percent of their points, kills, assists and blocks from a year ago.
Since the Last Horn Sounded … Florida matches up with Illinois State on Friday (Aug. 24), while the Golden Gophers and Fighting Irish go head-to-head in both team’s season opener.
Six Degrees … Florida and Minnesota met in the 2006 NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinals with the Gophers pulling out a 3-1 win … both Notre Dame and Minnesota suffered losses to Louisville last season … ND and Florida are two of only eight programs that have earned invitations to each of the last 14 NCAA tournaments … each of the three head coaches competing this weekend are among the top-30 winningest active coaches … Mike Herbert and Mary Wise are both familiar with institutes of higher learning in the state of Indiana – Herbert received his Ph.D. in philosophy of education from Indiana in 1974 while Wise earned an undergraduate degree in physical education at Purdue University in 1981 … the Irish and Gophers are both slated to take on California later in the season, a team that knocked LSU – another future Irish opponent – out of the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
Homecoming Queen … The Irish have never dropped a home opener under head coach Debbie Brown since she took over the program in 1991.
Re-Joyce Center … Notre Dame is 21-6 in home openers and has won its last 17 … the last time the Irish dropped an opener in the Joyce Center was in 1989 when they fell to Western Michigan, 3-2, in the Notre Dame Invitational … and in the history of the program, no ND team has started play on its home court with back-to-back matches against top-10 teams.
Get `em While They’re Hot … Purdue was the first ranked team Notre Dame ever faced to open a season … the Boilermakers were 10th in 1984 when they downed ND … the Irish played a top-10 foe two weeks into the 1995 season in the Notre Dame Invitational … after beating Northwestern, #9 USC won the second match, 3-0 … #6 Pacific was ND’s third opponent in 1999 and downed the Irish, 3-0, in the Shamrock Invitational … Notre Dame had won its first two matches of the season over unranked opponents … an unranked Irish team traveled to the Four Points Sherton Classic in Malibu, Calif., to start the 2003 season … they beat #10 Arizona, 3-1, before losing to host Pepperdine, who was ranked 5th-best in the nation … in the following week’s poll, Notre Dame jumped to the 21st spot … after opening with a home win against Loyola (Ill.) in 2004, ND suffered a pair of losses to #4 Nebraska at the Joyce Center.
Another BIG (EAST) One … Senior Adrianna Stasiuk, a 2006 all-BIG EAST first team selection, was one of five unanimous selections on the league’s 2007 preseason squad, joining Kimberley Todd (Marquette), Diana Andreyko (Pittsburgh), and preseason co-players of the year Hui Ping Huang (St. John’s) and Tatyana Kolesnikova (Louisville) … she took home second-team hardware as a sophomore, the same year she won the BIG EAST Championship’s Most Outstanding Player award … in her first season, she won the league’s rookie of the week award on consecutive occasions (Oct. 11, Oct. 18).
Born to Win … Debbie Brown notched her 500th career win as a head coach during the 2006 campaign, and her 509 win total ranks 27th in that category among active coaches … in fact, only two active coaches have more wins in as many seasons … she is eight wins shy of No. 400 as Notre Dame’s head skipper.
Mal-mentum … After putting together a band of seven consecutive double-doubles to end the season, which was the second longest streak in the record books, junior Mallorie Croal picked up a spot on the BIG EAST’s preseason squad … and that’s after she earned first-team honors in 2006.
Why Not Both? … Adrianna Stasiuk reached double figures in digs 24 times in 2006, which placed her seventh on that list for a single season … her streak of 10 consecutive matches with 10+ digs (Sept 17-Oct. 20, 2006) is tied for the fourth longest streak in a single season.
Start Early, Finish Late … Ashley Tarutis has played in 350 consecutive games … that streak is only 13 behind Meg Henican for the school’s record for uninterrupted games played … not a game has gone by in which she has not seen the court.
Closing In … Sophomore Christina Kaelin had five 20+-kill matches last season to finish tied for sixth in a single season. Christy Peters holds the all-time single season mark of nine (1994). After one season, Kaelin is one spot shy Notre Dame’s all-time top-10 list for career 20+-kill matches.
Buddy System … Notre Dame switched up its two setters (Ashley Tarutis and Jamel Nicholas) through out much of the 2006 season, where each led the team in assists in at least 11 matches … due in part to the two-setter approach, neither ranked among the top-10 statistical leaders in the BIG EAST, but Notre Dame, as a team, ranked second (14.78) in assists among league members.
Rejection Is a Good Thing … Junior Justine Stremick ranked sixth in the conference with her average of 1.37 blocks per game, and her 27 solo blocks were among the conference leaders in the BIG EAST last season … she also had nearly more blocks (156) that season than her next two closest teammates (Mallorie Croal and Kim Kristoff) combined, who totaled 164 together.
Doing the Dishes … Setter Ashley Tarutis totaled 860 assists in 2006 and now has 3,583 assists in her career, which is fourth on the Notre Dame assists list … she needs 102 to tie Kristen Kinder for third place.
And You Thought You Had It Bad … Not only does Notre Dame face two top-10 squads in the season’s first weekend, but seven of its 13 non-conference opponents were ranked among the nation’s top 25 in the CSTV/AVCA Coaches Preseason Poll … additionally, three more non-conference foes along with Louisville and St. John’s received votes in the standings … the RichKern.com Poll has eight future Irish opponents in its top-30, with five more appearing within the following 10 spots.
Same Places, New Faces … The six student-athletes who comprised the 2006 freshman class – Tara Enzweiler, Megan Fesl, Christina Kaelin, Kim Kristoff, Jamel Nicholas and Serinity Phillips – earned high praise before even stepping on campus, as two publications ranked the group among the five best in the country … Volleyball Magazine had Notre Dame third on its list of top recruiting classes, while PrepVolleyball.com placed the Irish fifth on a similar list. Kellie Sciacca, who was ranked 22nd on PrepVolleyball.com’s Senior Aces list in 2006, joins classmates Megan Dunne, Angela Puente, and Stephanie Slatt as Notre Dame’s four-deep freshmen class this season … all four are expected to immediately compete for playing time, as Sciacca and Slatt should see action on the front row while Puente and Dunne can both play the libero and defensive specialist spots.
Push Restart … In 2006, the Irish were without five starters from a squad that posted a 30-4 mark one season prior. But six players that saw significant action last year are back for the most recent Irish campaign.
A Change Will Do You Good … The Fighting Irish used 11 different lineups in 2006, each of which utilized at least two of this year’s sophomores and sometimes as many as four members of the class started at the same time. Five of the six second-year players broke a sweat in at least 80 of Notre Dame’s 114 games this past season.
Guess Who’s Back … Lauren Brewster, a two-time All-American and one of the program’s most decorated players, is the latest addition to the Notre Dame coaching staff. Brewster will be responsible for working with the middle blockers, coordinating travel, and assisting with virtually all aspects within the Irish program. Indeed, Brewster knows a thing or two about blocking after having been the NCAA’s leader in that category in 2003 while ranking among the nation’s top 25 leaders for four straight seasons. She was one of only five Division I players to be an AVCA All-American and CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2005, the same year she was on ESPN The Magazine’s Academic All-America second-team.
— ND —