Oct. 8, 2000
The Notre Dame Volleyball team (13-4, 4-0) outlasted BIG EAST foe Pittsburgh to earn a four-game (15-9, 10-15, 16-14, 16-14) match victory at Pittsburgh, Pa., Sunday afternoon. The 20th-ranked Irish are now 4-0 in BIG EAST conference play.
Four Notre Dame hitters notched double-digit kills in the match, led by senior Christi Girton who had a career-high 30 kills. The reigning two-time conference co-player-of-the-week had 57 attack attempts in the match and committed just 10 errors for an impressive .351 hitting percentage. Girton added 15 digs in the match.
Junior opposite Kristy Kreher continued her hot-hitting streak, totaling 22 kills, 10 digs and eight blocks against the Panthers. The 20-plus kill performance is Kreher’s fourth of the year (23 vs. #15 BYU, 21 vs. #16 Michigan State and 32 vs. #22 Loyola Marymount).
Junior Marcie Bomhack also had a double-double in the match with 19 kills and a match-high 19 digs. Classmate Malinda Goralski was the fourth Irish hitter to total double-digit kills with 12. Goralski, the team’s leading blocker, also had five blocks in the victory.
The victory also closed out an impressive weekend for senior setter Denise Boylan. Boylan led the team to a .425 hitting percentage against West Virginia on Saturday, Oct. 7, followed by Sunday’s .318 team hitting mark at Pittsburgh. She also had a career-high 86 assists in the match against Pittsburgh with 10 digs. The 86-assist mark breaks the school record for a four-game match that Boylan set on Sept. 21, 2000, against #22 Loyola Marymount.
Freshman Kim Fletcher played a hand in the Irish victory as well with a career-high eight kills on 11 attempts with just one error (.636 hitting percentage).
Pittsburgh was led by Stacy Renick and Marcie Thiesen who had 25 and 27 kills, respectively.
The Notre Dame volleyball team will return to action Wednesday, Oct. 11, when it travels to Illinois State for its third consecutive road game. The Irish boast a 6-0 record on the road in 2000.