SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame volleyball team gave 14th-ranked Stanford all it could handle early, but fell short Friday night in four sets at Purcell Pavilion, 25-23, 23-25, 22-25, 19-25.
The duo of Mae Kordas and Sydney Helmers were a force offensively, combining for 36 kills. Kordas put up a career-high 19 kills, one better than her previous career-high of 18 against Duquesne earlier this season. Helmers posted her second double-double of the season, adding 13 digs to her 17 kills on the night.
For the first time this season, both Maya Baker (25 assists) and Lily Fenton (21 assists) recorded 20 or more assists in the same game. Fenton chipped in 10 digs to her line, her second double-double of the season.
Stanford was a problem at the net, totaling 13.0 blocks to limit the Irish offense en route to a Cardinal victory. It had three in the first set, five in the second and four in the final set to push the 14th ranked Cardinal to its 10th win of the year.
Notre Dame will look to bounce back Sunday at 1 p.m. against Cal on ACC Network Extra. It’s only the second time the Golden Bears have made the trip to South Bend. Admission to all Irish regular season volleyball matches is free.
How it happened:
Set 1:
- Notre Dame won the first four points to start the match on three consecutive kills - three from Sydney Helmers and one from Chichi Nnaji
- The Irish extended their lead to 8-5 after back-to-back kills from Mae Kordas
- At the technical timeout, Notre Dame led 15-10, hot off a 3-0 run
- Stanford tied the opening set up at 17 before two straight Notre Dame points forced a Cardinals timeout
- Notre Dame secured the first set 25-23, as Helmers led the way with six kills and seven digs
Set 2:
- The Irish jumped out to a 5-3 lead as Kailyn Gordon-Greene registered her first kill of the game
- Stanford took a 12-9 lead later in the set after three blocks in a row to force an Irish timeout
- The Irish used a 3-0 lead to close the gap and make it 17-16 Cardinal to force a Stanford timeout before a Gordon-Greene kill out of the timeout tied it up at 17
- A 3-0 run gave the Cardinals the lead, 20-17
- Notre Dame answered with a 3-0 run of their own, capped by a Chloe Hooker service ace, to make it 20-20
- Both teams exchanged blows to make it 23 all
- The Cardinal prevailed in the end, winning the set 25-23 to tie it up
Set 3:
- A 6-0 Stanford run made it 9-5 early in the set. The run extended to 8-0 before a Stanford service error stopped the run at 11-6
- The Cardinal extended its lead to 15-11 at the technical timeout
- Notre Dame came within one at 21-20 after an Anna Bjork kill
- The Cardinal closed on a 4-2 run to win the set, 25-22, and take a 2-1 advantage
Set 4:
- Both teams went back and forth, with the score even at nine to start the fourth set
- The Cardinal had the advantage at the technical timeout, 15-13
- Stanford never looked back, winning the set 25-19