Oct. 14, 2007
Final Stats
Box Score (PDF)
Download Free Acrobat Reader
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – University of Notre Dame volleyball head coach Debbie Brown collected her 400th win since taking over the Irish program with a 3-1 victory over Syracuse on Sunday afternoon in the Women’s Building. Notre Dame dropped the first game, 26-30, before rattling off wins in the next three frames (31-29, 30-24, 30-24) in a 3-1 conference battle.
The win was No. 517 for Brown, now in her 17th campaign with the Irish and 23rd season overall as a head coach.
“One of the very positive things from the match was our offensive balance,” Brown noted. “All five hitters had double-digit kills, and Ashley (Tarutis) did a great job of keeping everyone involved in the win.”
Leading the Irish with 18 kills and a .371 hitting percentage was junior Justine Stremick (Langdon, N.D./Langdon Area), with senior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) adding 17 kills on 41 swats for a .317 clip.
Notre Dame (8-9 overall, 4-3 BIG EAST) finished the match by hitting .277 in the four-game affair, though Syracuse (12-10 overall, 3-4 BIG EAST) managed a .290 percentage on 15 fewer attempts.
Senior Ashley Tarutis dished out 58 assists – her highest total of the season – and sophomores Serinity Phillips (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center) and Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) each knocked down 13 kills. Freshman Kellie Sciacca (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) also wrapped up the match with 13 converted attacks.
The Irish had 23 and 24 kills in games two and three, respectively, following an opening stanza in which they squandered a 7-4 lead by dropping behind the Orange, 15-10. Syracuse would open that lead to eight points on four occasions. Three late kills by Sciacca helped chop the margin to three (29-26) when Brittany Kern gave the Orange their final point of the game.
Twenty assists from Tarutis helped the Notre Dame hitters record a .320 mark in the second game. This time, the Irish took control of the game early and held on to its steady advantage with an eight-point lead (23-15) past the midway mark. Ahead 28-21, seven scores by the Orange tied the game and the teams tangled horns again, 29-29. Fesl added a kill to put Notre Dame up by one and stepped up for a solo block on Kacie MacTavish’s attack for the win.
Stremick and Sciacca each recorded six kills in the third game and Tarutis got in on the action with a pair of her own as the Irish built a solid lead, 11-4, out of the gate. Another solo block by Fesl put ND on top by double digits and its largest lead of the match, 22-12.
In the final period, the Orange streaked to an 18-12 advantage after four early lead changes, including an initial Irish lead on Sciacca’s game-opening ace. Sciacca finished with three aces, tying a career-high. Successive kills by Stremick forced a 19-19 tie, and then Notre Dame gained the lead for good when Phillips fed Fesl to make the count 22-21.
Syracuse had four players with 10 or more digs and three with double-figure kills, led by Cheryl Cobbina with 17.
Visits to LSU (Oct. 23), Connecticut (Oct. 27) and St. John’s (Oct. 28) will follow a home conference matchup with DePaul next Friday (Oct. 19) at the Joyce Center.
–ND–