Oct. 30, 2011
QUEENS, N.Y. – Less than 24 hours after an exhausting five-set defeat at Connecticut, the Notre Dame volleyball team recovered to down host St. John’s, 3-1 (25-19, 17-25, 25-22, 25-20) in BIG EAST Conference action Sunday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena.
With its fourth straight win in the 19-match series with the Red Storm (10-17 overall, 1-9 BIG EAST), Notre Dame (13-9, 6-4) concluded its recent road escapades that spanned 11,309 miles in the air and on the road since Oct. 14. Notre Dame played five straight road games from Oct. 8-18 (Pittsburgh, West Virginia, DePaul and Hawaii) but refueled last week with a 3-0 home win over USF before traveling to Connecticut and St. John’s.
Coming through with a second straight double-double – and her sixth of the season – was senior Kristen Dealy, who led the Irish with 15 kills (.378). Dealy also had 11 digs and a pair of blocks.
Senior Frenchy Silva added a match-high 19 digs and three aces for the Irish.
Notre Dame hit .182 as a unit with seven different players recording multiple kills.
St. John’s hit .192 on the day and out-blocked Notre Dame, 14.0-11.0.
Leading the Irish in assists (29) and blocks (6) was sophomore Maggie Brindock. Notre Dame’s best hitting set came in the opener when the Irish hit .355.
Three Red Storm players – Paulina Piegza (13), Darlene Ramdin (10) and Yana Vadiyuk (10) – totaled double-digit kills.
Brindock assisted on 12 of Notre Dame’s 15 first-set kills and had a hand in four Irish blocks during that stretch.
Freshman Jeni Houser had a pair of kills after Notre Dame reached the 20-point mark as sophomore Andie Olsen and freshman Toni Alugbue also had converted swats.
Houser finished the contest with 14 kills.
A St. John’s error gave Notre Dame the initial point of the second frame but the Red Storm would go ahead to take a 10-5 lead. The team traded points until the 15-10 mark, when St. John’s extended its advantage to 19-10 after a 4-0 run, and led by 10 at 21-11 on a Notre Dame swinging error.
St. John’s was poised to take a 2-1 lead on the big board before the Irish rallied to take the third set.
Tied 21-21, the Red Storm relinquished the lead it had kept for most of the set with the Irish closing the frame on a near-flawless 4-1 run.
Notre Dame got out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth but later found itself trailing, 12-10. The Irish turned to sophomore Sam Brown for a pair of kills during a 5-0 run to take the lead for good.
–ND–