WHEELING, W.Va. – The Notre Dame College volleyball team (11-8, 2-2 MEC) traveled to Wheeling University (13-4, 4-0 MEC) to play a tough Cardinals team on Friday evening. NDC battled all night long, however the scoreboard does not do justice for the solid game that the Falcons had tonight. Notre Dame falls 3-0 to Wheeling.
In the first set, Wheeling seemed to be in command up 18-10, however NDC rattled off 11 of the next 14 points to tie the match at 21-all. A valiant bounce back effort would fall just short in a 26-28 first set loss for NDC. In set two, NDC was determined to win the set and grabbed six straight points to hold an early 11-6 lead over the Cardinals. Wheeling would will themselves back into the lead with five of the final six points of the set to take the second, 20-25. In the third set, NDC was staring at a 19-14 hole but again resiliently fought back into the match by winning seven of the next eight points to shock the Cardinals with a 21-20 lead. Wheeling however was able to edge out Notre Dame to solidify the match at 23-25.
On offense,
Grace Smotek led the Falcon attack with a match-high and career-high 16 kills.
Kelsie Palmer followed suit with 11 kills, while
Blaire Barr (7),
Carli Derda (5),
Brittany Miller (4),
Katie Richardson (3) and
Jayme Zoeckler (1) tallied the other kills for NDC.
McKenzie Andrix posted a team-high 20 assists while Zoeckler added 16 to fuel Smotek and company.
On defense,
Amelia Kaeberlein registered a team-high 26 digs, followed by
Kiley Kalina with 13 and Smotek with 11. At the net, Barr led the match with four blocks, while Derda (3), Richardson (3), Miller (2) and Smotek (1) also contributed to stifling the Cardinals attack.
In total, NDC had 47 kills on 169 total attacks (.172 hit percentage), with 41 assists, four service aces, 63 digs and seven blocks. Wheeling totaled 52 kills on 150 total attacks (.260 hit percentage), with 43 assists, three service aces, 79 digs and five blocks.
Notre Dame College volleyball will be back in action on Tuesday Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. when the Falcons welcome the Alderson Broaddus Battlers to Murphy Gymnasium.
