SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Notre Dame College volleyball hosted Point Park University and Ursuline College, on Tuesday, in a tri-match held in Murphy Gymnasium. The Falcons picked up two more non-conference wins defeating Point Park, 3-0, and Ursuline, 3-1. The day also featured senior Paige Staudacher becoming the program's all-time leader in assists.

In game one of the day, Point Park broke out a 7-3 lead, causing the Falcons to take a timeout. NDC quickly went on a 9-3 run to grab a 12-10 advantage. After that, the home team never gave the lead back in the set. Notre Dame took the first set, 25-20.

Point Park, again, came out ready to play in the second set, grabbing an early 9-6 lead after a 4-0 run. In fact, the Pioneers were still leading 16-15 before Notre Dame turned the tides. Three consecutive kills by freshman Blaire Barr gave NDC the lead and made PPU call a timeout. After the break in action, NDC closed out the set with a 7-1 run.

The third set was much different, as Notre Dame took control throughout. At one point, NDC extended their lead to 16-7. Point Park played strong in the second half of the set and made it close, but the Falcons picked up win number 13 with a 25-22 set win and a sweep of the Pioneers.

"Point Park is very well coached, they have some very dynamic players and last year we got swept by them, so it was nice to get them back this year," said head coach Travis Hinkle.

Another milestone was hit during the match as Paige Staudacher became the NDC program leader in career assists, breaking Maria Del Vecchio's record of 3,193, which stood for 15 years. Staudacher also had 38 assists in the win, which is tied for sixth highest for a three-set match at Notre Dame.

"Paige works really hard for every assist that she has," Hinkle said. "This year she has really distributed and she has a lot of young hitters who she works with. She has grown up so much in this past year to be an elite setter in the conference. I'm proud of everything Paige has done and how she has grown as an athlete and a person."

"It's awesome. I couldn't have done it without my team though," Staudacher mentioned. "The passers and hitters are accountable for me getting the record, too."

Barr led the team with a career-high 16 kills and a hit percentage of .429. On defense, senior Alexandra Kaeberlein recorded 22 digs while senior Mary Kate McHugh added 12 digs and four blocks.

Before the second match, Alexandra Kaeberlein and Staudacher were honored for reaching 2,000 digs and 3,000 assists, respectively.

"To be able to honor Paige and Ali (Kaeberlein) before a rival match is something special," Hinkle said. "It's a testament to what those two, and the rest of the seniors, have done for this program. I've never seen an ovation like that for two players like I saw today."

Notre Dame and Ursuline College are very familiar with each other and Ursuline came into the game with a 3-2 edge over their "rivals" in the last five matchups.

Notre Dame was ready for the challenge posting hit percentages of .297 and .385 in the first and second set, respectively. Ursuline took a 13-10 advantage in the first set, but the Falcons fought back to win, 25-20. McHugh totaled five kills in that set. Moving to the second, NDC took advantage of mistakes to grab a 7-1 lead. A 25-14 win was the result of the Falcons solid play.

Ursuline did not go away in the third set and they extended their lead to eight points, 14-6. Later, down 20-14, NDC put together a 9-3 run and tied the contest at 23. After two lead changes, UC scored three straight to win the thrilling set, 27-25.

Although fatigue might have been setting in for both teams on a warm day inside Murphy Gymnasium, the Falcons were able to put the set loss behind them and down the Arrows with a 25-19 victory in the fourth set.

"Ursuline is a great team," Hinkle stated. "They play hard, they don't give up on a ball. We knew we had to work, and they took advantage of us in that third set. We fought back, but they did a good job finishing that set. On the contrary, in the first, second and fourth set we did a good job finishing sets and taking control."

"That just shows how resilient we are," Barr said. "Even though we were down, and they went on a 7-0 run, I thought we came back really well in the third set even though we lost. We still fought really hard and in the fourth set, we brought the energy back and kept going."

Freshman Kaye Dregalla totaled 12 kills and Staudacher helped with 39 assists. Alexandra Kaeberlein added 15 digs and McHugh had 11 digs and four blocks. NDC recorded nine blocks, with Barr, senior Natalie Spadaro and McHugh recording four and sophomore Katie Richardson recording three.

Blaire Barr added eight kills, with a hit percentage of .350 to go along with her blocks. She credits her team for the confidence she has a young player.

"The atmosphere helps, everyone is so supportive," she said. "I feel like all the seniors, especially, are very supportive. Of course, Paige is an awesome setter so every ball she sets is perfect… To block, I think, is a great way to help on the defensive end. The middle helps out a lot too as Natalie [Spadaro] and Carli [Derda] do really well."

The Falcons will travel to Urbana University on October 4. The match is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.