Sept. 30, 2001
The 24th-ranked University of Notre Dame volleyball team (7-3, 3-0 in the BIG EAST) won the final three games of the match to defeat Georgetown (6-5, 3-1) in four games (28-30, 30-27, 30-25, 30-22) at the Joyce Center Sunday afternoon. The Irish are now 3-0 in BIG EAST Conference competition and have won 36 consecutive regular-season league matches.
Kristy Kreher (Birmingham, Mich.) led the Irish offensive effort with 18 kills on .424 hitting, while Malinda Goralski (Missouri City, Texas) recorded 13 kills and nine blocks for the Irish.
Georgetown entered the match with two of the hottest hitters in the league, Yulia Vtyurina and Lauren Warner, and fresh off a four-game victory at Syracuse on Friday, Sept. 28. They carried the momentum from Friday’s victory into the match against the Irish today. A string of Notre Dame hitting errors early in game one provided the Hoyas an 8-5 lead that eventually built into a 15-11 advantage. After a timeout, Notre Dame came back with kills from Kreher and Marcie Bomhack (Waukesha, Wis.), combined with a Hoya attack error to close the lead to two points.
Keeping the home team at bay, Vtyurina and Warner scored six kills over a nine point streak to put their team ahead 27-20. The Irish would stage another rally by scoring six points in a row to cut the lead to 27-26. Kim Fletcher (St. Louis, Mo.) contributed two kills and a block during the streak, but a kill from Vtyurina pushed the Hoyas ahead 28-26. Warner would eventually seal the game-one victory for the Hoyas with a kill.
The Irish formulated a game plan for success for the rest of the after the first game. The Irish defense would have to concentrate on Vtyurina and Warner, while getting Goralski and Kreher more involved in the offense.
As the Irish got back into the match in game two, Goralski and Kreher started to take over the offensive load while the Irish defense started to shut down the two big Hoya hitters. Notre Dame jumped to a 10-6 lead in game one, but Georgetown battled back with three kills and a block to knot the score at 10-10.
Surging into the lead once again, two Goralski kills and two Hoya hitting errors gave the Irish a short-lived 15-12 advantage. Determined to fight through the entire match, Georgetown came right back with eight straight points to establish a 19-15 lead. Looking for an offensive spark, Notre Dame would turn to Kreher, the BIG EAST Preseason Player of the Year.
Kreher smacked down a thunderous kill to cut the Hoya lead to 20-17 and Georgetown followed up with three consecutive hitting errors to tie the game at 20-20. Both teams would fight back and forth until the Irish inched ahead 28-27 with an ace from Janie Alderete (Santa Clara, Calif.).
The Irish knew where to turn for two clutch points to end the game and Kreher responded with two unstoppable attacks to score the last two points of the game and even up the match at 1-1.
The momentum was now on the home team’s side, and the Irish defense and offense began to take over the match. Goralski and Kreher would combine for six kills in game three and the Irish front line would block six Georgetown shots – on their way to posting 21 team blocks in the match. Irish freshman Emily Loomis (Fort Wayne, Ind.) provided an extra offensive boost in the third game as well with four kills, an ace and a block.
With a 30-25 game-three victory in hand, the Irish blocking prowess ensured a match victory in game four. Notre Dame would block 11 Georgetown attempts in the fourth game and most of the Irish front line players played a role in the defensive show. Goralski would end the match with nine blocks, Kreher totaled seven, Bomhack four, Kristen Kinder (Fresno, Calif.) six and Fletcher contributed a career-best nine. Once again it was Kreher who stepped up at the end of the game, scoring three kills and two blocks to lead her team to a 30-22 game and 3-1 match victory.
When the match ended, the Irish defensive effort on Georgetown’s big hitters was apparent in the boxscore. Even though Warner and Vtyurina combined for 33 kills, Vtyurina was held to a .000 hitting percentage, while Warner posted a .140 mark.
Notre Dame will be back in action Tuesday, Oct. 2, at Toledo (7 p.m.).