ND picks up two Big East wins
By MATT OLIVA
Sports Writer
Another weekend brought two more conference victories for the Notre Dame volleyball women's team.
The Irish used three games to defeat Boston College on Saturday and then survived a five-game match for a victory against Providence on Sunday. With the two victories, the Irish improve their conference record to a perfect 8-0, while improving to 14-6 overall.
Christi Girton led the Irish on Saturday against the Eagles, as Notre Dame claimed the victory in three games with scores of 15-2, 15-8, 15-10. Girton totaled 16 kills in the match to lead her Irish teammates. Senior captain Mary Leffers and sophomore Kristi Kreher each contributed to the offense, adding another 13 kills between them.
The Irish were able to roll through Game 1, but found themselves down 5-8 to Boston College in Game 2.
"We started out strong in the first game," stated Kreher. "The only aspect that we struggled with was putting the team away."
After battling back to even the score at 8, Irish sophomore Marcie Bomhack served five straight points for the Irish to bring the score to 13-8. Notre Dame was able to hold the Eagles scoreless the rest of the way and take Game 2, 15-8. The Irish then took Game 3 to win the match in straight games.
Julia El-Hag's six kills led Boston College, but the Eagles were outhit 0.366 to 0.020 and outblocked 11-3 by the Irish. Defensively, the Irish were able to shut down the Eagles, leading to their 0.020 hitting average. Kreher and junior Jo Jameyson led the Irish on defense with eight digs apiece, while eight Irish players contributed to the team's blocks total.
The match against Providence proved to be more difficult for the Irish. Notre Dame survived the five-game match for their eighth conference victory of the season, and in doing so claimed a place in the six-team Big East conference tournament set for Nov. 19-21 in Pittsburgh.
Notre Dame came back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Friars 12-15, 15-10, 8-15, 15-8, 15-12. Mary Leffers led the Irish in their comeback win with a team-high 18 kills. Denise Boylan (53 assists, 10 digs), Kristy Kreher (10 kills, 18 digs) and Christi Girton (15 kills, 14 digs) contributed double-doubles to offset Providence's 85 team kills.
"We realized that we had to start playing our game to win the match," said Kreher. "We didn't panic, going into the match. We knew their outside hitters get a lot of kills, so we knew we had to stop them and get a lot of digs."
The Friars, who are the first Big East team in 1999 to win a game against the Irish, got 26 kills from Annie Cella and 25 kills from Sarah Katinger. The Friars fell to 13-10 overall and 5-3 in the Big East with the loss that snapped their seven-match win streak.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, November 2, 1999
