Sept. 30, 2007
Final Stats | Fan Gallery 
| Photo Gallery
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Sophomore Serinity Phillips (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center) had a career-high 26 kills and freshman Kellie Sciacca (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) tacked on 11 blocks in the University of Notre Dame volleyball team’s 3-2 (21-30, 31-29, 30-27, 22-30, 17-15) loss to Villanova Sunday at the Joyce Center. Through 14 matches this season, five have now stretched into five games for the Irish, with Notre Dame coming out victorious in three of those.
A .294 attack average marked one of the better offensive outputs on the season for the Irish (6-8 overall, 2-2 BIG EAST) and their 22.0 blocks was a season-best. Four individuals recorded double-double kills. Sophomore Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) ripped 15, senior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) had 14, and junior Justine Stremick (Langdon N.D./Langdon Area) contributed 12. Stremick had 10 blocks – four were solo – while senior Ashley Tarutis (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) led the way with 38 dishes. Coming off the bench with 21 assists was sophomore Jamel Nicholas (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland).
Villanova’s (11-6 overall, 3-1 BIG EAST) Alona Cherkez matched Phillips’ 26 kills, and Chelsea Graman handed out 70 assists. Both squads were plagued by 10 service errors.
Notre Dame fired up the engine by hitting .432 in the opening game behind Phillips’ nine kills on 15 swings. The home squad went up by three, 22-19, on a huge backrow kill by Stasiuk to take its largest lead of the game. Shortly after, Stasiuk’s serve fell off the table just inside the line for the first of her three aces on the day and gave ND a 28-21 lead.
VU hit .262 while the Irish shot .263 as the teams traded leads six times in game three. The squads were tied at 14-14 when Villanova went on a 6-0 streak. Fesl’s kill on an extended play narrowed the margin to 29-27 in favor of the Wildcats, but Elysse Studzinski connected on her fifth kill of the stanza on game point.
The Irish surged out to an 11-4 lead in game four, adding a point on a Phillips’ facial and then extending that lead to eight on a sharp cutter by Stasiuk (18-10). Nicholas assisted Stasiuk’s kill at 29-22, then Tara Enzweiler (Raleigh, N.C./Cardinal Gibbons) was credited with the dime on a Phillips kill to win the game. Enzweiler also equaled a career-best seven blocks against the Wildcats.
Notre Dame got out to a 5-0 advantage in the fifth game behind a gutsy kill by Phillips on her third attack of the frame’s initial play. Stasiuk destroyed the Wildcat defense with a shocker down the middle and the Irish led 8-4. Villanova crept back in and tied things at 13-13. A pair of errors in the ending stretch gave the Wildcats the final two points they would need to secure the school’s first win over the Irish in 17 tries.
Rutgers will visit Notre Dame on Oct. 6 (Sunday) for a 2 p.m. (ET) showdown.
–ND–