This week: Notre Dame College volleyball will stay home and play Shepherd University on October 6 at 7 p.m. and Fairmont State University on October 7 at 6 p.m.

Records: The Falcons are 7-10, 0-3 Mountain East Conference, Shepherd is 12-4, overall, and 1-2 in the MEC while Fairmont State is 9-6 this season and 1-2 in the MEC.

Coaches Corner: Notre Dame volleyball head coach, Troy Haught is in his third season with a record of 27-53, 11-24 MEC. Alex Hoekstra is also in his third season as a head coach and has a record of 40-41, 15-20 MEC. FSU's head coach is Courtney Materazzi, who is in her fourth season at the helm, with a record of 79-35.

Rankings: None of the teams received votes in the AVCA Coaches Poll.

Series History: The Falcons have gone 3-6 against Shepherd, since they started playing each other in 2012 and are 1-11 in their series with Fairmont State since 2011.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame won their first game last week, 3-2 over Ursuline College on September 28 but then got swept by Wheeling Jesuit University on September 29 and West Liberty University on September 30. All three of the games were on the road. Against Ursuline, NDC had an attack percentage of .199 for the game as they won the second, third and fifth set and kept the game close in the first and fourth set, losing by three and two points, respectively. Melissa Maczuzak had 21 kills, 14 digs and 23 points while Mary Kate McHugh had 14 kills and 18 digs. Ali Kaeberlein had 27 digs. Against Wheeling Jesuit, the Falcons could not win a set as Melissa Maczuzak had nine kills and seven digs and NDC only had 35 kills, as a team. The Falcons struggled against West Liberty the next day as the team only recorded 33 kills. Maczuzak had 12 kills and Kaeberlein recorded 23 digs. Melissa Maczuzak leads the team this season in kills, points and attack percentage. Ali Kaeberlein leads the team in digs with 273. Maczuzak is also 8th in NCAA Division II in digs with 246 and needs eight kills to break the NDC career kills record.

Noting the Rams: Shepherd was busy this past week and-a-half, playing three matches. On September 28, SU easily defeated Bowie State University 3-0 at home, they also beat Salem University 3-1 on the road on September 30 and they squeaked out a victory over Fairmont State University 3-2 at home on October 3. Against Bowie State, the Rams held an unbelievable hit percentage of .519. They held Bowie State to just nine points in the final two sets. For Shepherd, Amanda Snowden recorded 10 kills and had an attack percentage of .750 and Cambriea Hill had 11 kills. Against Salem University, Shepherd won the first two sets but lost the third set. They would close out the game by winning the fourth set by three points. Amanda Snowden had kills and Imani Major recorded 29 digs. In their up and down win over Fairmont State, Shepherd lost the first set by 11 points but then dominated the second and third set before losing the fourth set by 10 points. The Rams turned things around in the fifth set and won 15-11. Imani Major had 26 digs while Amanda Snowden and Cambriea Hill each had 18 kills. Hill has 223 points this season and 190 kills, leading the team in both categories. Nicole Murray has an attack percentage of .309 and Major leads the team with 269 digs.

Noting the Fighting Falcons: The only game that Fairmont State played this past week was against Shepherd on October 3, a 3-2 loss on the road. The two teams matched up well as their hit percentages were nearly identical with Fairmont State finishing 15 percentage points higher than the Rams. Mackenzie Harrison had 21 kills, 16 digs and 22 points for FSU and Julia Shemaitis finished with 13 kills and 19 digs. As a team the Fighting Falcons had 54 digs, two fewer than SU. Mackenzie Harrison already has 373.5 points this season, which leads the team, and has 339 kills. Megan Clerico has 303 digs and Taylor Wisniewski has 59 total blocks. Harrison is first in the nation with 318 kills and 6 kills per set. Jessica Furda is eighth in Division II with 11.59 assists per set.