ND VOLLEYBALL: Irish falter in Nebraska
Noah Amstadter
Sports Editor
LINCOLN, Neb.
A team can only truly gauge its level of play by going up against the best. This is especially true for the Notre Dame women's volleyball team — a team that perennially dominates its weak Big East conference opponents yet hasn't advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals since 1997.
This weekend at the US Bank/Arby's Tournament in Lincoln, Neb., head coach Debbie Brown's team (3-3) found that they have some work to do. The Irish dropped three matches in three days, all in three games. Notre Dame fell to No. 7-ranked UCLA on Friday (28-30, 23-30, 26-30), No. 1 Nebraska (29-31, 22-30, 20-30) on Saturday and No. 15 Pepperdine on Sunday (8-30, 27-30, 23-20).
The true test for the Irish, and perhaps their most impressive contest, was Saturday afternoon's match against the defending national champion Cornhuskers. Notre Dame led by as much as 9-5 early and had a chance to win at game point when they led 29-28 late. Unfortu-nately, the Cornhuskers tied it up on the next point, then blocked two consecutive Malinda Goralski attempts to come back and win 31-29.
"I think one of our goals for our team is to win game one," said senior opposite Kristy Kreher, who posted a team-high 13 kills. "If we win it, it gives us the momentum versus the other team. I think it would have helped."
At that point, momentum swung in the Cornhuskers favor. In front of a sold-out crowd of 4,000 fans in the Colliseum — a volleyball-only arena — the Huskers improved their hitting percentage to top the Irish 30-22 and 30-20 in the final two games to take the match.
Nebraska head coach John Cook, who collected career win No. 200 in the contest, was impressed with Notre Dame's approach Saturday. Exactly one year earlier, Nebraska dominated an overwhelmed Irish squad at the Joyce Center (15-3, 15-9, 15-12).
"They competed much better today than they did a year ago," Cook said. "I think a year ago they were flustered or overwhelmed. I think they were much better mentally prepared to play us. I thought they gave a great effort."
The Irish played well in Friday's match against the Bruins but failed to pull out a win in any of the three games. In game one, a Kim Fletcher kill gave the Irish a 28-27 lead. But UCLA rallied behind All-American Kristee Porter's play to reel off three consecutive points and take the match.
In game two, Notre Dame led 14-12 before falling behind. In the final game, Porter scored three consecutive points to break open the match and end Notre Dame's day.. Fletcher, senior Marcia Bomhack and Goralski all scored eight kills for the Irish. Kreher, the Big East preseason player of the year, takes pride in the balanced scoring attack.
"I think we can count on more than one or two people to get kills for us," Kreher said. "We have five great hitters on our team, we can count on all five of us at one time to get a kill."
On Sunday, the Irish bad luck from the previous night's football game carried from Memorial Stadium to the arena next door. The Waves came out strong in game one, leading 16-9 before two kills from Goralski and consecutive Kreher aces cut the lead to 18-15. But another Waves scoring streak put the game in their hands. Game two started close, the score knotted 16-16, until a Wave kill streak broke the game open. Waves middle blocker Katie Wilkins put the game away with four kills.
In game three, Wilkins scored four more kills late and the Waves swept the match.
All Sports Stories for Monday, September 10, 2001
