SOUTH EUCLID, OH – The Notre Dame College volleyball team (12-11, 3-5 MEC) hosted a red-hot Davis & Elkins College (10-9, 7-1 MEC) on Tuesday evening inside a rowdy Murphy Gymnasium. NDC would fall 3-1 in a tight and well contested match.
In the first set, Davis & Elkins would jump out to a quick 10-4 start to the match and force an NDC timeout. The Falcons would then force the match back to 18-18, before D&E finished out the set 25-20. In the second set, Notre Dame stormed out to a 5-0 lead with revenge on their minds. After trailing the entire set, the Senators would flip the switch down 19-17 and grab the next seven points to force set point. Davis & Elkins would grab the second stanza, 25-22. In a must have third set for NDC, the Falcons leaped out to a decisive 21-9 lead putting the Falcon Flock on their feet. The Senators would switch the momentum by winning the following eight straight points to push the score to 21-17, still in favor of NDC. Notre Dame had enough, they finished off the important third set via a
Carli Derda kill, 25-20. The fourth set had much of the same to offer, a high intensity, back and forth battle. After duking it out to 15 all, the Falcons took command and rattled off seven of eight points to hold a 22-16 lead. Looking just three points away from a fifth set, Davis & Elkins had other plans. The Senators asserted themselves and won 12 of the final 16 points to claim a wild fourth set, 28-26.
On offense,
Kelsie Palmer led all Falcons with 11 kills, followed by
Katie Richardson and
Brittany Miller with eight each.
Jayme Zoeckler (14),
McKenzie Andrix (12),
Amelia Kaeberlein (10) assisted nine different NDC Falcons on the evening, en route to 43 total kills (.098 hit percentage) and 38 total assists. In terms of service, Andrix registered a match-high four aces, followed by
Kiley Kalina with two and
Grace Smotek with one to tally seven aces as a squad.
On defense, Kaeberlein led all players with a match-high 22 digs. Eight other Falcons aided Kaeberlein to a team total, 70 digs. At the net, Derda and
Blaire Barr swatted the Senators attack with a match-high five blocks each. Richardson (4), Palmer (2), Miller (1) and Zoeckler (1) also sent back D&E shots to total 12 team blocks.
Notre Dame College will be back in action this Friday Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. when the Falcons travel to West Virginia Wesleyan College to face the Bobcats of Buckhannon, WV.
