Sept. 14, 2007
Final Stats
Box Score
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. – In its opening match of the Bronco Invitational, the Notre Dame volleyball team was not able to keep up with a streaking Gaucho squad as it fell to UC Santa Barbara, 3-1 (30-22, 27-30, 30-28, 30-22). The loss Friday evening at the Leavey Center dropped ND’s overall record to 3-5 as the team now looks ahead to Saturday’s (Sept. 15) match against No. 11 California, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. (ET).
Matching a season-best mark with 21 digs while leading the team with 14 kills and three aces was senior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South). Sophomore Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) and freshman Kellie Sciacca (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) evened each other in the stat columns with 13 kills and two solo blocks each. Senior Ashley Tarutis (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) tallied 47 assists for her seventh-straight match with 40+ handouts. The Irish dropped in a season-high eight aces.
Notre Dame put together an early 3-0 run behind a pair of Fesl kills, which was countered by a similar spurt by UCSB (4-7) to open the match. The Gauchos cracked a 10-10 tie with a Stacey Schmidt kill and would not look back though ND rallied to knot the game two more times. A 5-0 jolt put UCSB in control at 26-18 as they went on to take the frame by an eight-point margin.
The arms loosened up in game two as ND hit .327 in the frame, compared to its .103 mark one game prior. Leading by a digit, the Fighting Irish caught fire with four-straight scores midway through the period to stand on top, 21-16. UCSB called a timeout in an attempt to cool the coals, but Stasiuk came through with three kills over a seven-point stretch to force another Gaucho break. Fesl and Sciacca each converted attacks for scores over the final volleys as ND held on to win by three.
The match took several tilts over the course of game three, though Notre Dame and its .304 hitting percentage was not enough to get through 15 ties and five lead changes. Tarutis connected on a pair of kills in the action and Sciacca’s score at 27-27 provided the Irish with a one-point edge. UCSB rattled off three-straight to win the battle and rode that momentum to an eight-point win in the final set, when they shot .444 with only two attack errors.
The Gauchos were led by the duo of Lauren McLaughlin and Rebecca Saraceno, who had 21 and 17 kills, respectively.
–ND–