SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The Notre Dame College volleyball team was firing on all cylinders in its first match on Saturday against Lock Haven, winning 3-2. The Falcons and Bald Eagles traded sets back and forth until NDC won the fifth set 15-11.
 
Throughout the five sets multiple players were able to perform well, leading to balanced team play and individual highlights, including a tied NDC record 28 kills from Melissa Maczuzak.
 
Maczuzak ties her record from a year ago for the most kills in a single game in school history. The lone senior for the Falcons credited her teammates, specifically Paige Staudacher who recorded 50 assists.
 
"The whole team was able to play well together, which makes it easier on everyone," Maczuzak said. "The defense got things going and Paige's sets were great; we were really able to click today."
 
Staudacher echoed Maczuzak's thoughts on the team coming together to play well and complimented her teammate's ability to score the ball.
 
"It's great to have a player like that knowing that when I set the ball she's more than likely going to put it down," Staudacher said. "I thought, overall, our offense was on. We finally got together as a team to get our offense rolling and our defense playing well.
 
Joining the players in their excitement to play a complete game was head coach Troy Haught.
 
"We came in with a good game plan, when we play these teams that are bigger than us and have a lot of power we have to rely heavily on our defense to push the rest of the play," Haught said. "I thought our defense really stepped it up for us today. We added a lot of blocking and were hitting well. When you can get all three pieces to go together in one match then good things will happen."
 
Maczuzak was joined by Mary Kate McHugh in recording double-digit kills in game one with 10 while Natalie Spadaro and Roberta Jokubauskaite had nine and seven respectively. Defensively, the team was led by Ali Kaeberlein with 24 digs. McHugh and Staudacher each had 16 digs hile Maczuzak recorded 13. Jokubauskaite led the team with 6 total blocks.
 
Haught explained, after the game, what the abilities of his statistical leaders really mean.
 
"Mel is so dynamic," Haugh said. "She doesn't back down and has a great vertical, which allows her to hit the type of shots that some hitters can't. We can move her around to use her to our advantage to get over blockers.
 
"Paige does a good job job calling the game. When she wonders what she needs to call she has no issues asking the coaching staff. That has led to us having our own sort of dialect. She knows how to set up hitters in certain situations and can recall what is working well when it comes to crunch time.
 
"I can stress enough how important Ali's presence in the back row is. Most coaches we talk to wonder how we got her. She does a great job of reading hitters, anticipating where the ball will be and moving. We're able to run a two-back serve receive a lot, especially with Mary Kate back there, they really just set us up for success."
 
The Falcons (6-7) weren't able to play as well in their second set of the day, suffering a four-set defeat to Mercyhurst.
 
Maczuzak again led the team with 11 kills while Staudacher had 27 assist and McHugh and Kaeberlein led the team defensively with 20 and 17 digs. McHugh also recorded four served aces in the second game.
 
Notre Dame College will play again on Friday, September 22 against Urbana. The home match is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start.