Sept. 9, 2011
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A highly efficient and balanced offensive output by the Notre Dame volleyball team helped produce a 3-0 (25-12, 25-16, 25-17) win over visiting Lipscomb Friday night at Purcell Pavilion. Notre Dame hit .549 as a squad, committing just two errors on 91 swings with 52 kills.
With the effort from above the net, Notre Dame set a program record for hitting pct. in a three-set match. The previous best (.539) was set against Marquette in 1986. It was also the first time the Irish hit over .500 in a contest since a 3-0 win versus DePaul in 2005.
The win set the stage for an Irish (4-2) meeting with Portland on day two of the Golden Dome Invitational. That match starts at 7:00 p.m. (ET) Saturday with live video, audio and stats available at UND.com. Portland fell to Valparaiso, 3-0, to open the invite Friday afternoon. Valparaiso and Lipscomb will meet at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Lipscomb (2-6) hit .154 and did not have a player reach the 10-kill mark. Kaycee Green’s nine kills led the Bisons with Stephanie Rex chipping in a team-high 10 digs.
Lipscomb posted respective hitting clips of .000, .222 and .205 in the three sets.
Sophomore Andrea McHugh had 16 kills with one error for a .577 output. She added an ace, two blocks and matched senior Frenchy Silva in the dig department with nine.
Despite McHugh’s swinging error in the first set, Notre Dame hit .667 and then slugged at a .514 rate in the second without a miscue.
Senior Kristen Dealy had Notre Dame’s only other attack error which came in set three, but she more than made up for it with eight digs while distributing the rock to Maggie Brindock and Sammie Brown. The sophomore setting duo had 26 and 17 assists, respectively, and Brown scooped four shots while adding a kill from the outside.
Coming off a pair of performances during last week’s West Coast swing which earned her all-tournament honors at the Stanford Invitational, freshman Jeni Houser bounced 11 kills on 17 swings for a .647 average. Houser had three kills in each of the first two stanzas, then recorded five of the first seven points for Notre Dame in the third. That included three in an opening 5-0 Irish run to begin the frame.
Freshman Toni Alugbue caught fire after earning the starting nod and punched in eight kills on 18 swings for a .444 average. Alugbue was one of four players with a solo block, as the Irish out-stuffed the Bisons, 10-0. Alugbue also led the Irish with three block assists.
First-year swinger Meg Vonderhaar (.667) added four kills and junior Hilary Eppink (.545) had six.
Notre Dame’s side-out pct. on the evening was .840 which included a 12-for-12 effort in the first set.
–ND–