ERIE, Pa. – The Notre Dame College volleyball team began their 2022 campaign at the Mercyhurst/Gannon Invitational on Friday afternoon. The Falcons played a pair of matches, with NDC falling 3-0 to Grand Valley State in the opener and dropping 3-2 to Malone in the night cap.
 
In the first match, GVSU set the tone early by jumping out to a 6-0 lead, and went on to grab the first set 25-10.
 
NDC fought back in the second set by claiming the first five points after a pair of great defensive plays. The Lakers would claw their way back into the set and eventually take the lead at 17-16. GVSU would increase their lead to 21-17, but Notre Dame would show some late life. Freshman Ryleigh Ronald, sophomore Caris Cross and senior Carli Derda all registered a kill, added with a Laker attack error and NDC tied the second set at 21-21. A couple of late kills by sophomore Samantha Comer and Derda gave the Falcons a chance but Grand Valley State nabbed set two, 25-23.
 
GVSU opened the third set up 10-6, but Notre Dame stormed back to take a 13-11 lead. Kills by junior Kelsie Palmer, Derda and Comer, coupled with a handful of Laker errors set the table for NDC's run. After Notre Dame held a 16-15 lead, Grand Valley State went on a 9-1 run to go up 24-17. The Lakers would claim the final set 25-19. Despite the third set loss, Comer put on a show by registering seven of her match-high 11 kills during the final set of play.
 
In the second match, Notre Dame grabbed an early 9-5 lead after a service ace by junior Ellie Schenk. Malone would work their way into a 17-11 lead after a 12-2 run. With the score at 21-15 Pioneers, Notre Dame generated a 10-1 run to steal the first set 25-22. Senior Kaye Dregalla posted five of her team-high 14 kills during the Falcons 10-1 run to close out the set.
 
Once again NDC opened up a 9-5 lead in the second set, but the Pioneers would flip the scrip by going on a 16-5 run. With MU up 21-15, the Pioneers would go on to close out the second stanza 25-19.
 
In the third set, the two sides exchanged points throughout and generated 14 different ties in the set alone. Ronald put the finishing touches to put the Falcons up 2-1 in sets.
 
The fourth set was all Malone as MU went up 14-1, and held the lead to a 25-15 set victory.
 
In the fifth and final set, the Pioneers got up early, 7-3. The Falcons were able to pull the score to 12-10 via senior Blaire Barr and a three-point run. Malone would grab three of the final four points of the match to win the fifth set 15-11.
 
For the day, Comer led the Notre Dame attack with 19 kills, followed by Dregalla with 17. Barr (13), Derda (12) and Ronald (10) all posted double digit kills, as Ronald leads NDC with a .407 hit percentage through two games. As a team, NDC had a .107 hit percentage on the day.
 
Sophomore Jayme Zoeckler totaled 52 assists on the day as she consistently set up the NDC attack in both matches.
 
Defensively, sophomore Kiley Kalina led NDC with 11 digs in game one before freshman Sierra Nausieda generated a career-high 28 digs to lead the squad in game two. Derda picked up where she left off last season by swatting 10 shots at the net, leading Notre Dame on the day.
 
Notre Dame College will be back in action tomorrow August 27 to continue the Mercyhurst/Gannon Invitational. This time, the Falcons will play both host schools with Gannon on tap at 10am, followed by Mercyhurst at 3pm.