Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- The Notre Dame Falcons finished their first weekend of the season with a pair of victories on Saturday afternoon on their final day of play at the Ram Fest Tournament. 

Notre Dame (2-1) started the day with a five set victory over Philadelphia, which included a number of big rallies to score their first win of the season, and they finished the day with a 3-1 win over Davis and Elkins to finish the weekend. Winning twice on Saturday marks the first time that the NDC program has registered double digit wins on opening weekend since 2008. 

In their first match of the day, Notre Dame took the opening set, 25-18, before the two teams battled to an incredible finish in the second set, where Philadelphia came out ontop, 31-29. The Rams won the second match, 25-23, before Notre Dame rallied to take the final two sets to snag their first win of the season. 

The opening set was highlighted by an incredible 12-0 run from the Falcons to help them pull away. Early on, Philadelphia had an 8-4 lead, before Notre Dame ran off 12 straight points, to take a commanding, 16-8 advantage that they never lost, as they won the opening set, 25-18. 

In the second set, the Rams led by as many as seven (15-8), but the Falcons slowly battled back and really made things interesting. Down 24-21, Notre Dame ran off three straight points to tie things up at 24-24, but eventually fell, 31-29. 

The lead changed hands a few times in the third set as well. Like the first two sets, the third set was extremely tight throughout, as neither set led by any more than four. It was tied at 22-22, just before the Rams scored three of the final four points to take the set. 

Notre Dame came right back to take the fourth set, with a 25-17 victory. The Falcons never trailed at any point in the fourth set, as they scored the first three points of the set, and expanded on that by opening the set with a 7-1 run, and never looked back. 

NDC fell behind early in the final set, 7-3, but just like their first set of the day, they used a big run to take control of the contest, by scoring nine of the next 10 points to take a 12-8 lead. Morgan Toman had a hand in the scoring process of NDCs final six points, which included a pair of service aces, as Notre Dame closed out the win with a 15-9 victory in the final set. 

Brooke Mako and Lindsay Shirilla and Angela Bush led the way for Notre Dame in the opening match with 18, 16, and 11 kills respectively, while Tawny Flareau and Shelby Regiec contributed with 33 and 23 assists respectively. Defensively, Tawnia Almaraz led the Falcons with 15 digs while Regiec added 12 and Ryan Moriarty contributed with 10. Alexia Koerkenmeier had five total blocks in the contest as well. 

The Falcons took the first two sets of their second contest, defeating Davis and Elkins, 25-21 and 25-18. Davis and Elkins responded with an 8-1 run to open up the third match, but narrowly escaped a big NDC comeback to win the third set, 25-23. Notre Dame used a big push in the middle of the final set to win the match. NDC was tied, 8-8, when they went on an 8-2 run, and went on to win the final set, 25-15. 

Shirilla led the Falcons in the second match with 13 kills, while Regiec added 19 assists and Flareau added 14.  Almaraz led the NDC defense again with 16 digs in the second match, and Regiec added 15. Kristen Hill and Angela Bush both added four blocks. 

The Falcons are in action again on Tuesday, Sept.9, when they head to Painesville, Ohio, to take on Lake Erie College. The contest is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.