WEEKEND WARRIORS: The Notre Dame volleyball team (3-5) traveled to Michigan State where they defeated New Hampshire, but lost the following day to Utah and #18 Michigan State.

In the Friday night match against New Hampshire, the Irish lost game one 15-11, but battled back to take games two (15-12), three (15-9) and four (15-4). In the second game, the score was tied at 10-10 when Irish Coach Debbie Brown inserted junior middle blocker Mary Leffers (Tampa, Fla.) into the game for the first time this season. Leffers, who underwent surgery in the spring to repair a torn ACL, broke the tie on her first play with a kill off a set from Denise Boylan (Lisle, Ill.), putting the Irish ahead for good en route to the 15-12 win.

On Saturday morning, Notre Dame faced Utah, who had lost the previous night to Michigan State 3-0. Behind the hitting of Kalani Tonga and Sara Shakula, the Utes upset the Irish fairly easily in three games, 15-10, 15-4 and 15-10.

In the feature matchup of the tournament, the Irish played host Michigan State Saturday night. Despite the final score, the young Notre Dame squad put up a good fight, especially in games two and three. In game two, the Irish were actually ahead 13-8 before the Spartans came back to tie the score at 13 and eventually win the game at 15-13.

Game three was also close. Notre Dame jumped out to a 5-2 lead to open the game before the Spartans tied the game at five and eventually took the lead at 8-6. Not to be outdone, Notre Dame responded back, pushing the score to 9-8 in its favor. Michigan State, however, scored four-straight points to take the lead for good, winning the third game 15-11.

TREADWELL TERRIFIC : For the second time this season, senior captain Lindsay Treadwell (Austin, Texas) was named to the all-tournament team. The only four-year player on the squad, Treadwell had 15 kills, two aces and two blocks against New Hampshire. Versus Utah, she recorded her fourth double-double (kills/digs) of the season with a 10 kill, 10 dig effort. Treadwell also had seven blocks against the Utes. In the final match of the Michigan State Invitational, Treadwell had 11 kills, five blocks and 16 digs, a career best in a three-game match. The double-double effort against the Spartans moved Treadwells career matches with at least 10 kills and 10 digs to 18, including five already this season. Also making the Michigan State Invitational all-tournament team was MVP Jenna Wrobel (MSU), Sarah Gustin (MSU), Christi Landry (MSU), Kalani Tonga (Utah) and Sara Shakula (Utah).

LEFFERS LEARNING: Junior Mary Leffers is learning what its like to play again after seeing her first action this weekend. Leffers played in three total games and two matches against New Hampshire and Utah. The 1997 first team All-BIG EAST and NCAA District 1 selection had five kills, a dig and three blocks against New Hampshire. A day later in just one game, Leffers recorded one block assist against Utah.

COACH-TO-COACH: The Michigan State-Notre Dame game marked a reunion between the two schools head coaches. Irish Coach Debbie Brown played under Spartan Coach Chuck Erbe while she was at the University of Southern California from 1976-77. USCs two-year record during that time was 72-1 and included two Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) championship titles.

MIXING IT UP: Coach Debbie Brown changed her teams starting lineup this weekend. Replacing Mandi Powell (Monrovia, Ind.) at outside hitter was freshman Marcie Bomhack (Waukesha, Wisc.) and replacing junior Emily Schiebout (Blaine, Minn.) at opposite was freshman Kristy Kreher (Birmingham, Mich.). The Irish starters included one senior (Lindsay Treadwell), three sophomores (Denise Boylan, Jo Jameyson (Alvin, Texas) and Christi Girton (Munice, Ind.)) and two freshmen (Bomhack and Kreher).

POLL DROPPING: With the two losses this weekend, the Irish dropped out of the poll for the first time this season. Notre Dame started out at 16th in the preseason poll, fell to 18th after a loss against Colorado and then dropped to 24th a week ago.

TAKING A BREAK: The Irish will have almost two weeks to rest between games. Their next match, and first BIG EAST Conference game, will be at home against Seton Hall at 8 p.m. on October 2. Notre Dame has won three-straight BIG EAST titles and currently has a 76-match win streak against conference opponents in both the BIG EAST and the old Midwestern Collegiate Conference.

BLOCK PARTY: In the latest NCAA statistics, the Irish rank 18th in the nation as a team in blocks. Notre Dame has 18 solo blocks and 141 block assists for the season. All together, the Irish have 88 total blocks and average 3.05 blocks per game. Individually, sophomore Jo Jameyson leads the team in both solo blocks (5) and block assists (32).

HEAD COACH DEBBIE BROWN: Brown, in her eighth season at Notre Dame, currently has a 193-63 record at Notre Dame and a 310-146 career record. Browns head coaching career also includes a six-year stay at her alma mater, Arizona State (1983-88). If Notre Dame wins its next six matches, Brown could get her 200th win as coach of the Irish against Duke on October 17.

AVCA/Sagarin Division I Power Rating The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and Jeff Sagarin have teamed up to compile a division I power rating for 302 college womens volleyball teams. Sagarins system takes into account things like wins, losses, points scored, points allowed, difficulty of schedule and home court advantage.

Sagarin (Bloomington, Ind.) also does ratings systems for college basketball and football among other sports.

The ratings are available at www.kiva.net/jsagarin/sports/vballskd.htm or by a link on the AVCAs website www.avca.org.

8/30 – Notre Dame (#19)
9/16 – Notre Dame (#52)

BIG EAST CONFERENCE (As of September 21, 1998)

Team       Overall Record
Georgetown      9-3Syracuse        7-3Boston College  6-4Seton Hall      6-4West Virginia   6-5Rutgers         5-5Pittsburgh      5-5St. Johns       5-6Providence      4-6NOTRE DAME      3-5Connecticut     3-9Villanova       2-7

BIG EAST PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Week 1:
Lindsay Treadwell (ND)

Week 2:
Annette Ryan (UCONN) and
Melissa Tytko (Georgetown)

Week 3:
Kerri Potts (Syracuse)
Big East Rookie of the Week
Week 1:
Noreen Carroll (Syracuse)

Week 2:
Stasha Levi (St. Johns)

Week 3:
Yulia Vtyurina (Georgetown)

Volleyball Magazine Top 20 Poll
As of Sept. 21, 1998

R School                  Prev. Rank1. Long Beach St. (10-0)    12. Penn State (10-0)        23. UCSB (10-0)              44. Nebraska (9-0)           55. Stanford (6-2)           76. Wisconsin (10-1)         97. Texas (6-2)              58. Hawaii (7-1)            149. Pacific (8-1)            610. Colorado (6-1)         1011. BYU (9-1)              1112. Florida (8-2)          1213. USC (5-3)               814. Arizona (10-0)         1715. Florida State (8-3)    1516. LMU (8-2)              1617. Arkansas (7-2)         1318. Ohio State (7-2)        NR19. Minnesota (10-1)       1820. Michigan St. (7-1)      NR
National Attendance AveragesAs of Sept. 21, 19981. Hawaii         6,7872. Nebraska       3,0853. Illinois St.   2,6214. Long Beach St. 2,1615. Florida        2,1456. Pacific        1,8267. Penn State     1,6178. Wisconsin      1,6059. Texas          1,36610. Illinois      1,210
Roster1 Audra Duda ** Sr. DS  Woodland Hills, Calif.2 Denise Boylan*    So. S   Lisle, Ill.3 Malina Goralski   Fr. MB  Missouri City, Texas4 Kristy Kreher Fr. OPP Birmingham, Mich.5 Emily Schiebout*  Jr. OPP Blaine, Minn.6 Marcie Bomhack    Fr. OH  Waukesha, Wis.7 Christi Girton*   So. OH  Muncie, Ind.8 Mary Leffers**    Jr. MB  Tampa, Fla.9 Jo Jameyson*  So. MB  Alvin, Texas10 Lauren Stettin   Jr. S/OPP   Burr Ridge, Ill.11 Mandi Powell**   Jr. OH  Monrovia, Ind.12 Adrienne Shimmel* So.    OH  Mission Viejo, Calif.13 Lindsay Treadwell*** Sr. MB  Austin, Texas15 Emily Tarpoff    Jr. OH  East Lansing, Mich.16 Michelle Graham  So. S   Austin, Texas
Head Coach: Debbie Brown, 8th season (Arizona St. 82)Assistant Coaches: Steve Hendricks, 5th season (Ball State 90); Jessica Fiebelkorn-Kerr, 1st season (Notre Dame 93)*Denotes Monograms earned