PREVIEW: Irish Set For Home-and-Home Series With #4 Louisville

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (9-10, 2-8) are set to play No. 4 Louisville (17-3, 9-1) on Wednesday, Oct. 30, which will be their third match in a row facing a ranked opponent. The Irish are coming off of losses to No. 12 SMU and No. 1 Pitt as they prepare to face the top-5 Cardinals twice this week in a home-and-home.

The Irish battled the top team in the country in four sets (14-25, 20-25, 25-22, 19-25) on Sunday, falling to No. 1 Pitt (19-1, 9-1). This is the first regular season set loss that the Panthers have suffered at Fitzgerald Field House since Oct. 6, 2023 against No. 11 Georgia Tech.

NOTRE DAME vs. #4 LOUISVILLE – Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7 PM 
Location: Louisville, KY | L&N Federal Credit Union Arena
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NOTRE DAME vs. #4 LOUISVILLE – Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1 PM 
Location: South Bend, IN | Purcell Pavilion
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Game Notes (PDF) – Away 

Game Notes (PDF) – Home

HISTORY VS.  #4 LOUISVILLE

• This will be the 47th match up between the ACC rivals with the overall series tied at 23-23.
• The last match up between the Irish and Cardinals was Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023 in Purcell Pavilion. The Irish fell in three sets to the No. 5 Cardinals at the time (12-25,18-25,16-25).
• The Irish were led by Lucy Trump with seven kills, followed by Sydney Palazzolo with six kills. Phyona Schrader and Trump each chipped in four blocks a piece.
• The last Notre Dame win over the Cardinals was on Sept. 25, 2020, as the Irish defeated Louisville on the road in three sets (27-25, 25-22, 26-24).
• The longest ND winning streak was from 1986-1992 where the Irish won six straight matches against the Cardinals.

PHYONA SCHRADER

• Phyona Schrader was named ACC Setter of the Week on Monday, Sept. 16 after guiding the Irish to a perfect 3-0 week, with two wins over Northwestern and the program’s first-ever win over Colorado State.
• She is now second in the nation for triple-doubles this season (8).

FRESH FACES

• Notre Dame’s incoming freshman class ranked 13th in the nation according to Prep Dig.
• The Irish welcome six freshman to the team, bringing the Irish to a roster size of 22 – Rockwell’s largest roster since starting in 2022.
• The freshman class consists of Grace Langer (MB), Anna Bjork (MB), Kailyn Greene- Gordon (OPP), Mia Radeff (OH), Morgan Gaerte (OH), and Mallory Bohl (MB).
• Gaerte was the number one recruit coming out of Indiana, hailing from Angola High School, just a little over an hour from South Bend. 
• Notre Dame also welcomes setter Ella Sandt to the 2024 squad, a graduate transfer from Saint Mary’s.

KEY RETURNERS

• The Irish return five rising sophomores, six rising juniors, a pair of rising seniors, and a pair of graduate students.
• Notre Dame’s two graduate students, Hattie Monson and Lauren Tarnoff, are each using their fifth and final seasons to finish their careers at ND. Monson led the Irish with 397 digs last season, while Tarnoff was second on the team last season in blocks (84).
• Senior Phyona Schrader is also back for another season with the Irish. Schrader led the conference last season with the only triple double recorded in the ACC. She tallied 14 kills, 22 assists, and 13 digs in the win over Wake Forest at home on November 17, 2023.
• Outside hitter Lucy Trump returns for her junior season as she tallied 135 kills and was second on the team with 22 aces. She led the Irish offensively her freshman year with 252 kills.

SALIMA ROCKWELL

• Salima Rockwell heads into her third year at the helm of the program after finishing her first two seasons with a record of 21-33
• Rockwell spent this past summer prepping for the 2024 Olympic games as she was selected to be an analyst for NBC for both the men’s and women’s matches.
• Rockwell, a four-time national champion coach and three-time All-American, is the seventh head coach in Notre Dame volleyball history.
• For the past three years, Rockwell has served as a color commentator for ESPN, Fox Sports, Big Ten Network and CBS Sports.
• Rockwell spent nine years coaching at her alma mater, Penn State University, holding titles of associate head coach, assistant coach and director of operations over two different stints in Happy Valley (2006-2009 and 2015-17).
• As a student-athlete, Rockwell was a three-time All-American setter, was named to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament team, helped guide the Nittany Lions to an NCAA Championship runner-up finish, was four-time All-Big Ten honoree, and led Penn State to Big Ten championships in 1992 and 1993.
• Rockwell’s name is peppered throughout the legendary Penn State record books – ranking sixth all-time on the program’s career assists list (5,455) and eighth on the career digs chart (1,278). She is an inductee into the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Hall of Fame.
• Between her two coaching tours at Penn State, Rockwell also spent five seasons (2009-2013) at the University of Texas. While in Austin, she helped lead the Longhorns to the 2012 National Championship title, its first in almost 25 years.

YEAR THREE WITH THE STAFF

• Sara Matthews and Craig Dyer return as associate head coaches for the Irish for their third year with the program.
• Matthews, a standout player at James Madison and Kansas, came to South Bend after spending the past five seasons as the head coach at the University of Delaware.
• Dyer joined the program after spending the past four seasons at Creighton, with previous stops at Penn State, Pittsburgh, Marquette, Seton Hall and Rutgers. He’s worked with several All-Americans during his time at Creighton and was part of the 2019 BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year.
• Paul Koncir joined as a video and data analytics technical coordinator for his first season with the Irish in 2022 and was promoted to assistant coach ahead of the 2023 season.
• Koncir joins the Notre Dame Volleyball family after spending the past two seasons with the Michigan State Spartans as an associate head coach. Prior to MSU, Koncir had spent eight seasons with Indiana.
• Mackenzie Keenan is in her third year as the operations specialist for the Irish. Keenan joined the program after spending nearly the past seven seasons at Texas Christian University. She worked as the TCU volleyball director of volleyball operations after having spent time as the volleyball graduate assistant.