Irish win two to remain perfect within Big East
By RACHAEL PROTZMAN
Sports Writer
Notre Dame volleyball remains undefeated in conference play following wins over Big East opponents West Virginia and Pittsburgh.
The No. 20 Irish, now 13-4 overall and 4-0 in the league, edged Pittsburgh in four games (15-9, 10-15, 16-14, 16-14) Sunday.
"I think Pittsburgh was a lot better than we originally gave them credit for. They've definitely been the strongest team we've played in the Big East," said senior co-captain Christi Girton said. "We played really tense against Pittsburgh and had a lot of miscommunication. We should have had more blocks than we did."
Girton led Notre Dame with a career-high of 30 kills, and added 15 digs. Junior Kristy Kreher racked up 22 kills, 10 digs and eight blocks while Marcie Bomhack added 19 kills and 19 digs. Denise Boylan totaled 86 assists to break her previous four game assist record set earlier in the season against Loyola Marymount.
"We've had the goal of finishing games quickly instead of getting the 14th point and coasting," said Girton. "We did that well against West Virginia, but we had some lows against Pittsburgh. We were in cruise throughout that game, it was kind of up and down."
Notre Dame came on strong against West Virginia on Saturday, stopping the Mountaineer offense to earn a 15-0 game one win before dominating games two and three 15-7 and 15-4.
"With West Virginia we were able to get in and get on top of the team right away, not mess around with them. We were able to take care of them instead of playing down at their level," said Girton.
Kreher led the Irish with 12 kills and seven blocks, while Girton and Bomhack each added five kills in two games.
"We can't overlook the conference teams. It's not known as a strong volleyball conference but it's getting stronger," said Girton, "Pittsburgh definitely let us know that there are some pretty decent teams to look for."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, October 10, 2000
