SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – In a battle between neighborhood rivals, Notre Dame College welcomed John Carroll University into Murphy Gymnasium on Tuesday evening. The Falcons took care of the Blue Streaks in straight sets with senior Carli Derda generating a career-high 10 kills in the win.
 
NDC came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, claiming a 9-4 lead. Notre Dame would move in front 17-10, after claiming six of seven points in a row. Derda started and capped off the run with a pair of kills. Junior Brittany Miller polished off the first set 25-15 when she recorded a kill.
 
JCU fought back during the second set by grabbing an 8-4 advantage. NDC was able to tie the stanza at 11-11 after three straight points via Blue Streak errors. Despite a quick 3-0 JCU run, Notre Dame secured eight of the following nine points to move ahead 19-15. Derda and fellow senior Kaye Dregalla posted a pair of kills during the run. A back and forth battle for the remainder of the frame would give way to a 25-21 Falcon win, punctuated by another Derda kill.
 
During the final set, the two sides dueled to a 7-7 tie before the Blue Streaks jolted in front 14-9, fueled by 7-2 run. The Falcons would answer the call and tie the contest again, 15-15. Notre Dame used a 6-0 run, highlighted by a Grace Smotek service ace.
 
The latter half of the set became a rollercoaster with John Carroll pulling back in front, 22-19 after a short 7-4 run. Resiliently, Notre Dame came back once again with five consecutive points to move within one point of the game (24-22). However, JCU tied the contest at 24-24, 25-25 and 26-26 after facing four match points. NDC would eventually claim the contest, 28-26 after a couple of Blue Streak attack errors.
 
"Throughout the game we started noticing that our middles were scoring a lot for us," mentioned junior McKenzie Andrix postgame.  "So when we were in system and got that pass, we tried to work the middles a lot, and have our outsides yelling very loud to get our middles a one-on-one."
 
To Andrix's point, the Notre Dame College volleyball team was led by Derda's (who is a middle blocker) career-high 10 kills on a blazing .526 hit percentage. Dregalla's nine kills and junior Kelsie Palmer's eight aided the NDC attack which posted 43 total kills on the night. Andrix posted a game-high 33 assists to facilitate the Falcon offense.
 
Defensively, sophomore Libero Kiley Kalina logged 16 digs, followed by Andrix and Smotek with 10 apiece. At the net, Derda added five blocks, along with Dregalla with three.
 
As a unit, NDC posted a .226 hit percentage with43 kills, 41 assists, 60 digs, nine blocks and seven service aces.
 
The Notre Dame College volleyball team will be back in action on Sunday Sept. 18 at 11 a.m. when the Falcons welcome D'Youville College into Murphy Gymnasium.