SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – On Friday night, Notre Dame College went up against No. 15 Wheeling University. NDC had two players reach double-digit digs, but fell to Wheeling, 3-0.

"Tonight was a tough loss against a fantastic team in Wheeling," said head coach Travis Hinkle. "We had a rough start, but in the second and third sets, we really pushed Wheeling to their limits… When we played them a few weeks ago, we didn't really compete and I feel like tonight, even though we got swept, we really did compete."

Following a tough first set, Notre Dame and Wheeling had a close battle in set two. NDC continued to fight, and after falling down 14-10 and 17-13, the Falcons closed back within two points, both times. Back-to-back kills put the Cardinals up, 21-17, but the Falcons responded with three consecutive points. NDC trailed by one point, 21-20, before Wheeling closed out the set and won by a score of 25-21.

The third set was another close battle and the score was tied 10 times as the teams reached an 11-11 score. Wheeling scored the next four points to open up a 15-11 lead. But Notre Dame used a service error, two service aces by sophomore Blaire Barr and two kills by sophomore Sarah DeGeorge to take a 16-15 lead. The Falcons also grabbed leads of 17-16 and 18-17, but Wheeling would come back and win the set, 25-20.

"We really need to work on finishing, we didn't finish sets two and three well, and stopping runs" said Hinkle. "It's been a tough couple of weeks just playing the North [Division] twice, but we have two home games on Tuesday and we'll look to learn from this and hopefully get two wins on Senior Night."

DeGeorge totaled 11 kills along with 11 digs while sophomore Kaye Dregalla added eight kills. Junior Katie Richardson had 24 assists, eight digs and a block assist. Junior Amelia Kaeberlein led the team with 22 digs.

"We really played well on the defensive end," Hinkle mentioned. "Our passing was top notch, once again, and it was nice to see our outside hitters with Sarah DeGeorge and Kaye Dregalla really come along and make huge plays and take advantage of their weaknesses."

Notre Dame will play a double-header against Frostburg State University, on Tuesday. The first game is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.