Sept. 7, 2007
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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Four Irish players recorded double-doubles as the University of Notre Dame volleyball team collected a 3-1 (30-24, 24-30, 30-26, 30-19) victory over the College of Charleston Friday evening at the Joyce Center.
Senior Ashley Tarutis (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) had 15 digs to go along with her game-high 54 assists while sophomore Serinity Phillips (Valley Center Calif./Valley Center), sophomore Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey), and senior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) notched double-digit figures in kills and digs. Not since Notre Dame’s Sept. 2 win over Valparaiso in 2006 have five players notched 10 or more digs in a match for the Fighting Irish.
Cole Dawley had a team-best 15 kills on 35 attempts for the College of Charleston.
The win improved the host Irish to 2-3 while the Cougars dropped to 3-2 to wrap up day one of the Shamrock Invitational. Alabama took down No. 13 Ohio earlier in the day by a 3-2 margin.
“The thing I was most pleased with was our blocking,” said Irish head coach Debbie Brown. “It was good to see everyone step up and help make that a bright spot for us.”
With a season-high 21.0 total blocks, Notre Dame doubled-up College of Charleston in the category, and the Irish have now out-blocked their opponents in four of five contests this season. Seven of the 10 Irish players that saw action got their hand on a block.
A tip from Tarutis put the Irish on the board in game one, 1-1, with freshman Kellie Sciacca (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) knotting the count two points later with a kill to make it 3-3. Down one at 19-18, Phillips fired in a kill to tie the game before ND soon went up by a deuce with a Stasiuk rocket, 21-19. Phillips’ fourth block of the frame gave the Irish a five-point lead at 24-19. CofC cut the lead to two, 25-23, sparking Stasiuk to rifle back-to-back kills and an ace. Junior Justine Stremick (Langdon, N.D./Langdon Area) and sophomore Tara Enzweiler (Raleigh, N.C./Cardinal Gibbons) teamed for a block to give the Irish the 30-24 win. Stremick finished with a game-high nine blocks, with Tarutis logging a career-best six rejections.
The Cougars gave the Irish all they could handle and a bit more as they took control of the second game behind six kills from both Dawley and Whitney Russell. ND was able to bring the game to a draw 14 times could not find the lead after tying the score for the final time at 19-19.
Fesl stretched ND’s game-three lead to 13-10 with a shot and Phillips’ kill sustained that difference at 15-12. CofC rattled off three quick scores before a net violation put Notre Dame back on top, 16-15. Sciacca and Phillips teamed for another block (24-22) and ND kept its two-point lead with Phillips’ lazer down the gut of the Cougar defense (26-24). The Cougars closed the gap to one before a Stasiuk kill gave the Irish a two-point cushion, and her ensuing serve caught a chunk of the net before creeping over for the score. She followed that ace with another to secure the 30-26 win.
“I think Adrianna really picked it up tonight,” said Brown. “She’s been a good leader all season but she really stepped things up in games three and four.”
Stasiuk converted 16 of her 43 swings for kills and had 12 digs while Fesl earned 19 kills to lead both squads.
Stasiuk busted out a pair of points for the Irish with an early kill and block to give her team a 9-6 lead in game four. Notre Dame soon received back-to-back kills from Phillips and Stremick to start a 6-0 run capped off by a Stremick block to put the game out of reach. The Irish would go on to lead by as many as 12 points in the frame.
The Shamrock Invitational continues on Saturday (Sept. 7) with College of Charleston and No. 13 Ohio squaring off at 4:30 p.m. (ET). Notre Dame and Alabama will play in the 7:00 p.m. nightcap.
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