SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – A dominating performance gave Notre Dame College the win over Urbana University, 3-0, on Tuesday. Urbana, who came into the contest second in the Mountain East Conference, was held below 20 points in two of the three sets. With the win, NDC broke the program record for most wins in a season, with 22.

The Falcons set the tone in the first set, putting down 19 kills for a hit percentage of .319. The Blue Knights did not lead in the first set and only tied the game twice, as Notre Dame won 25-19. Senior Mary Kate McHugh had eight kills and zero errors in the first set, while freshman Kaye Dregalla added five kills without an error. Junior Roberta Jokubauskaite put down four kills and two blocks. She had, at least, two blocks in every set throughout the match.

"We're playing and having fun as a team, so I don't feel all the chaos in the midst of it," Dregalla said. "We were cheering and having fun tonight. It didn't seem like I was doing much, because my team had my back."

"I felt great, I had all my teammates behind me and I think we were all loud and energetic," Jokubauskaite mentioned. "It was overall just a team effort."

One aspect that head coach Travis Hinkle wanted to see improved was the service errors, after NDC committed five in the first set. The team would only commit three more the rest of the match.

"We missed a lot of serves in the first set, but we cleaned those up, and our serve receive was phenomenal," Hinkle said.

The second set did not go as smoothly for Notre Dame and was full of several big runs. Trailing 5-4, Notre Dame went on a 7-0 run to push ahead by six points. When Urbana was down 17-10, they put six straight points on the board and then trailed by just one point. A kill by Anna Davis tied UU with Notre Dame, at 20. But, Notre Dame knew who turn to, as Jokubauskaite had a kill and Dregalla had the final three kills to close out the set and win, 25-22. Dregalla had seven kills in the set.

"The second set, we lost our serve receive a little bit, but we powered through," Hinkle said. "Urbana made some errors that helped us out and we got the win."

Notre Dame meant business in the third set as they went ahead 4-0 and stretched that lead to 8-3. Just like the first set, NDC did not trail. They would push the advantage to 10 points, 17-7. Dregalla finished the set with her 16th kill of the day, and Notre Dame won 25-14.

"The third set, might have been the most dominant set we've played all season," Hinkle mentioned. "Everything flowed, our serve receive was on point, our setting was beautiful, our hitting was beautiful, our block was there. We did everything we needed to do."

With the win, Notre Dame broke the program record at 22 wins in a season, with the previous high being 21 in 2007. They also finished the home portion of the schedule with 10 wins, which is the most in program history, with the previous high being nine.

"Everyone in the lineup has shown why they are in the lineup," Hinkle explained. "Roberta, who hasn't started in a while, came in and dominated at the net tonight. Natalie [Spadaro] was hurting so we let her heal, but Roberta came in and we didn't lose a beat. She brought so much energy and the block that we know Roberta for, provided a spark tonight… We kept finding our hot hitter and Paige [Staudacher] made amazing decisions, but our defense gave her some great passes to where she always had three options."

Dregalla not only led the team in kills and points (17.5), but also had a hit percentage of .379. McHugh finished with 14 kills and 15.5 points. Jokubauskaite had a season-high five kills to go along with her seven blocks, which is the most in a game since she had 10 on September 13.

"I knew that my team needed me, I knew what I had to do," Jokubauskaite said. "So I just did my job."

On the defensive side, Notre Dame finished with 10 blocks. Senior Paige Staudacher, who led the team with 28 assists, also had 10 digs. The Falcons were led by senior Alexandra Kaeberlein, who had 27 digs, which is third in program history for a three set match. The team finished with 76 digs, which is fourth most in program history for a three-set match.

Tonight marked NDC's third win over Urbana since 2011, and their first since 2016. The Falcons now stand alone in fifth place in the MEC standings, while the Blue Knights fall into a tie for second.

"It's one thing to beat an excellent team like Urbana, but to get the sweep and not let up from the very first point to the last point, this is where we want to be at this point in the season," Hinkle said. "It was great to see so many players do so many great things. Even the little things turned into big things. Our team had their energy show, their character show and a want to win."

"A win like this is so big for us," Jokubauskaite mentioned. "I think it really sets the tone for how we're going to finish this season and in the MEC Tournament."

Frostburg State will host Notre Dame on November 15. The match is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.