Notre Dame claims Big East title after beating Rutgers
By RACHAEL PROTZMAN
Sports Writer
The Notre Dame women's volleyball team rounded out Big East play this weekend with sweeps over Connecticut and Rutgers for the conference title. This weekend marked Notre Dame's sixth consecutive conference tournament appearance with five titles.
The Irish, now 25-5 overall and ranked 20th nationally, will move on to its eighth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance as a result of the Big East title.
The Irish topped Connecticut in three games (15-10, 15-13, 15-6) on Saturday to move on to the conference championship against Rutgers on Sunday.
"Winning both matches in three games was pretty big for us. Against UConn earlier in the season we had to play five games with them so it was a goal to finish them off in three and we were able to do that," said senior co-captain Denise Boylan.
Notre Dame racked up a 6-2 lead in game one before allowing the Huskies to narrow the gap to just two points with a 9-7 score before coming on strong to secure the first game win. Connecticut put in a stronger performance during game two as it rallied from a 9-3 Irish lead to earn the 12-9 lead before Notre Dame came back to wrap up game two as an Irish win.
Junior Marcie Bomhack led the Irish offense with 19 kills while juniors Kristy Kreher and Malinda Goralski followed with 18 each. Goralski also added her career-high of 11 blocks to aid Notre Dame. Senior Christi Girton chipped in 12 digs and 10 kills.
Connecticut falls to 18-12 with the loss and 7-5 in the Big East including a five-game loss to Notre Dame earlier in the season.
"I don't think there was a point that we thought we weren't going to win it all. We may have gotten down during the second game against UConn but I don't think that there was a doubt in anyone's mind that we were going to come back and win it," said Boylan.
The Irish finished off the championship title run with a three-game sweep over Rutgers (15-8, 15-8, 15-10).
Girton racked up 16 kills and ten digs to lead the Irish performance while Kreher and Goralski each added 15 kills. Bomhack racked up 13 kills and 18 digs to aid Notre Dame. Boylan racked up 62 asssists and 14 digs to earn Big East Championship Most Outstanding Player honors while leading the Irish to a .335 weekend hitting percentage.
"I think we did a really good job of keeping our composure and staying patient throughout the weekend. Our middles were really effective this weekend and that helped," Boylan said.
Notre Dame will face No. 6 USC in its final match of the regular season on Friday.
"We really want to have a good competition with USC. We're going out there to beat them and I think that if we keep playing competitively in practice with each other and work on things specific to USC, we'll be able to do just that," Boylan said.
All Sports Stories for Monday, November 20, 2000
