ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Notre Dame volleyball team fell Sunday on the road at Michigan in three sets, 23-25, 22-25, 21-25. The Irish are now 3-5 on the season.
Maya Baker notched a career-high 26 assists in just her second true road game. The freshman now has four games with 20 or more assists.
Morgan Gaerte finished the afternoon with 11 kills. The 2025 Preseason All-ACC Selection has finished with double-digit kills in every match this season. Sydney Helmers added seven herself, four in the second set, while Chichi Nnaji totaled seven kills on just twelve attempts.
Notre Dame got five service aces, two each from Lucy Trump and Anna Bjork. Trump now has 12 aces on the season, a team-high.
How it happened
After falling behind early, the Irish used a 4-0 run, highlighted by kills from Morgan Gaerte and Chichi Nnaji, to take a 16-14 lead in the first set. Later in the set, two consecutive Michigan service errors gave the Irish a 20-19 lead, forcing the Wolverines to call a timeout.
Out of that timeout, Michigan ripped off a 4-1 run to make it 23-21. The Wolverines would register a pair of kills after that to win the first set close, 25-23. Michigan tallied 17 kills on a .351 hitting percentage in the first set to claim the early lead.
The Irish got Gaerte going more to start the second set. The sophomore started the second set a perfect 3-for-3 on attacking attempts, but it was the Wolverines with an 8-6 lead at the first timeout. An 8-1 shortly after that made it 17-9 Michigan.
Notre Dame didn’t back down. A 3-0 run forced a Wolverines timeout, capped off by Grace Langer’s first kill of the afternoon. The Irish got within two before Michigan’s defense got back-to-back blocks that led to an eventual 25-22 second set win. Gaerte and Sydney Helmers combined for nine kills in the set.
The Wolverines continued their impressive play over the weekend, jumping out to a 7-1 lead to open the third set. The Irish clawed back with a service ace from Anna Bjork and multiple kills from Grace Langer to get back within three. But Michigan would never surrender the lead in the set, even after a late Irish push, and take it 25-21 to win the match.
Notre Dame returns home to open conference play next weekend. The Irish will host Syracuse Friday inside Purcell Pavilion at 6:30 p.m. for Hispanic Heritage Night before wrapping up the weekend against Boston College at 1:00 p.m. Sunday’s match will be the first of four posters in this season’s team poster series. Fans are encouraged to stay after the game for post-game autographs.