This week: Notre Dame College volleyball will host another tri-match on October 1. They battle Point Park University, beginning at 3 p.m. Later that day, Ursuline College visits NDC to play at 7 p.m. Urbana University will host the Falcons on October 4, starting at 6 p.m.

Records: Notre Dame is 12-4 with a mark of 2-0 in conference. Point Park holds a record of 12-2, while Ursuline is 0-10. Urbana currently has a record of 5-7 and they are 2-0 in the MEC.

Coaches Corner: Travis Hinkle is in his second season as head coach at Notre Dame and has a record of 28-21 (10-8 MEC). Bridget Bielich enters her second season as head coach of Point Park and has a record of 31-14. Calaeb Campbell is in his first campaign with Ursuline. At Urbana, Kara Hellmann enters her second season as head coach with a record of 26-19 (12-6 MEC).

Rankings: None of the teams are ranked in the AVCA Coaches Poll.

Series History: NDC is 0-1 after falling to Point Park in 2018. Since 2011, Notre Dame has a 4-6 record against Ursuline. Urbana holds a record of 15-2 against the Falcons since 2011.

Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame had another solid week, coming home and defeating three teams over two days. On Friday, the Falcons took care of Fairmont State in four sets. Then, on Saturday, NDC swept Frostburg State and Salem. Against Frostburg State, Notre Dame posted a .365 hit percentage, which was tied for the third highest mark the team has posted this season. In all three games, Notre Dame's hit percentage was .230, or higher, and for the season, their average is .226. On Saturday, not only did the Falcons sweep both games, but they were able to get a lot of players touches, especially on the offensive end. Against Frostburg State, nine different players recorded a kill, while 11 had a kill versus Salem. Kaye Dregalla, who led the Falcons in kills in two of the three games this weekend, still leads the Falcons in that category with 158. Paige Staudacher totaled 100 assists in the three games, bringing her season total to 539, which is 12th in the country. Alexandra Kaeberlein is still sixth in the nation in digs with 299.  Katie Richardson is at the head of the teams in blocks with 35, while Blaire Barr has 29. On offense, Barr (.362) and Richardson (.269) are ranked first and second in hit percentage of NDC players who have over 200 attempts. Barr also ranks first in the MEC in hit percentage. Notre Dame is fifth in the country in digs (1,044), eighth in assists (682), tenth in kills (726), tenth in aces (106) and 13th in digs per set (18.98). They are leading the conference in all of those categories except for digs per set, but still rank second.

Noting the Pioneers: Point Park plays in NAIA's River States Conference and they have done very well, winning 10, or more, conference games over the past three seasons. They have also won at least 19 total games in each of the past three years. The Pioneers have qualified for the NAIA National Tournament four times, since 2010. PPU has had an incredible start to their season, losing just two games in their first two months of play, with one loss coming at the hands of the No. 10 team in NAIA. Taylor Small leads the team with 163 kills, averaging 3.2 per set, while Julia Menosky has 303 assists. Ashley Castelli has 240 digs on the season and Jazlyn Rozier leads the team with 19 blocks.

Noting the Arrows: Ursuline has gotten off to a rough start after going 12-17 in 2018, a season that included the most conference wins for the program since 2014 (8). However, they have come close to grabbing the 'W' in several games, going to five sets in the three of their 10 games, including a game against Urbana on September 7. Vikki Henderson leads the team in kills (109) and aces (16). Regan Nickol has 263 assists on the season. Defensively, Zoe Skinner has 131 digs, which leads the team, but the Arrows have three players with at least 120 digs.

Noting the Blue Knights: Last season, Urbana started 1-4 but still won 21 games and was the three seed in the MEC Tournament. They will look to have a bigger turnaround this season after going 3-7 in their non-conference schedule. However, the Blue Knights looked very comfortable in their first two conference games, sweeping Frostburg State and Fairmont State. Urbana had a hit percentage of .372 against Fairmont State. Lexi Reinhart led Urbana in kills both games with just 12. Anna Davis totaled 67 assists, she now has 404 this season. Hannah Delor leads the team with 173 kills on the season. Delor is second in the conference with 20 aces and .44 aces per set. Courtney Niesen has 284 digs on the year on defense. The Blue Knights also block very well as Kaitlin Trace (34) and Natalie Perez (33) both have more than 30 blocks and UU has totaled 73.5 as a team. Urbana is second in the MEC in opponent hit percentage, limiting the opposition to a .145 hit percentage.