SOUTH EUCLID, OH – The Notre Dame College volleyball team (12-8, 3-2 MEC) hosted Alderson Broaddus University (4-8, 0-5 MEC) in front of a loud crowd inside Murphy Gymnasium on Tuesday evening. NDC cleaned up at home with a 3-0 sweep of AB.
 
"We feel pretty good, we actually had a great couple days of training," said Co-Head Coach Anthony Mezacapa, "We came out with our home crowd tonight, we love playing at home. And the girls executed what we went over and studied for Alderson Broaddus, so I think it came to life in the gym."
 
In the first set, NDC was down 8-9 but went on to claim 15 of the following 21 points to hold a commanding 22-15 lead. Kelsie Palmer slammed the door shut on set one with a kill, assisted by McKenzie Andrix, 25-18. In the second set, a back and forth start to the set, gave way to four straight Falcon points to grab a 20-16 lead, two of which came from Katie Richardson service aces. The Battlers would battle back into the pivotal second set with the next three straight points making it 20-19. Amelia Kaeberlein pulled a kill out of her bag of tricks to seal off AB in the second set 25-21. In the third set, the wind seemed to be taken out of Alderson Broaddus as Notre Dame was quickly up 19-10. The set would finish as a back and forth affair, until Carli Derda sent the Battlers back to Philippi with a match ending kill, 25-17.
 
"Coming into the game, we were at a .500 record, this gave us a winning record in the conference," said Co-Head Coach Hannah Watson, "Right now we're talking to the girls about asserting their dominance in the conference and this was a perfect opportunity to do that. Going back to [the spring], we went to AB and ended up losing to them. This was kind of a revenge game for the girls, they had a lot to prove tonight. They got a solid win in three against a really respected team."
 
Palmer (12) and Grace Smotek (11) paced the Falcon attack that featured ten players recording a kill. Kaye Dregalla (6), Richardson (3), Blaire Barr (3), Brittany Miller (3) Derda (2), Samantha Comer (2), Kaeberlein (1) and Carly Emerson (1) were the other Falcons wrecking havoc on the Battlers defense. Andrix (22) and Jayme Zoeckler (15) did their job in the assisting department which grabbed 42 assists in total tonight.
 
Smotek (17) and Kaeberlein (16) did the work in the back line as the only two players with double digit digs for NDC. In total, 12 Falcons recorded a dig in tonight's win. Richardson stifled the Battlers attack with a match-high three blocks, followed by Miller with two, Derda with two, and Palmer and Barr each with one.
 
After leading the Falcons in digs, and totaling the second most kills in the match, Smotek had this to say, "I went into today thinking, I was going to do my best for the team. I had the support of my team, everyone was telling me where to hit it. We adjusted our defense, so asking the coaches for help, really helps me get the ball up for them."
 
In total, NDC grabbed 44 kills on 122 total attacks (.230 hit percentage). The Falcons also had 42 assists, five service aces, 64 digs and five blocks. AB countered with 31 kills on 132 total attacks (.068 hit percentage). The Battlers also totaled 30 assists, one service ace, 47 digs and three blocks.
 
Notre Dame College will be back in action this Friday Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. when the Falcons meet the Yellow Jackets of West Virginia State University in Institute, WV.