Women’s Volleyball Defeats Notre Dame 3-1 In NCAA First Round – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/4/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 4, 1999
Box Score
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Ohio State women’s volleyball team (17-11), behind a match-high 26-kill, 15 dig performance by Rosie Snow defeated Notre Dame (20-9) 3-1 (13-15, 15-10, 16-14, 15-7) in the first round of the NCAA Championship played at UCLA Saturday. Joining Snow with double-figures was Jen Flynn with 19, Shelly Draeger with 16 and Dana Stearns with 10. Kristy Kreher led Notre Dame with 24 with Christi Girton adding 20, Mary Leffers 12 and Marcie Bomhack 10. The win advances Ohio State to the second round to face the winner of the UCLA-Eastern Washington match on Sunday at UCLA
Game one started with seven ties as the teams progressed one point at a time until Ohio State broke a 7-7 tie with two ace serve by Dana Stearns and a Notre Dame ball handling error to take a 10-7 lead. The Irish tied the match at 10 with two OSU hitting errors and a kill by Marcie Bomhack. With ties at 11 and 12, the Irish took a 13-12 lead on an OSU error. A ND block by Mary Leffers and Denise Boylan set game point at 14-12 and a kill by Leffers ended the game at 15-12. Notre Dame hit .458 for the game to OSU’s .217
Game two opened with a 1-1 tie that was broken by a Dana Stearns kill and with a Rosie Snow kill put Ohio State up 3-2. The Buckeyes took a 5-2 lead on a kill by Suzie Stiling and a solo block by Rosie Snow. After a Notre Dame time out an OSU block by Stiling and Snow put OSU up 6-2. Two Irish errors and a kill by Jen Flynn expanded the lead to 9-2. After the second ND time out, a kill by Flynn and an ace serve from Shelly Draeger put the Buckeyes up 11-3. ND’s Denise Boylan, with a kill, cut the lead to 11-4, but a block by Katie Virtue and Dana Stearns gave Ohio State at 12-4 lead. An OSU error cut the lead for OSU to 12-5, but an ace serve by Stearns made the OSU lead eight at 13-5. A Byolan kill and three Ohio State error cut the Buckeye lead to 13-9. OSU’s Snow recorded a solo block to set game point at 14-9. Notre Dame stopped the game point and a block by Kaitlin McEwen and Kristy Kreher cut the lead to 14-10. The Buckeyes sided out but Notre Dame stopped three more game points before a solo block by Stearns on an overpass capped the game for OSU at 15-10. In the game OSU hit .325 to ND’s .278.
After Suzie Stiling scored a kill for point in game three, Notre Dame scored the next six points with three blocks, two kills and an OSU error. An Irish error made it 6-2 and a Jen Flynn overpass kill cut the ND lead to 6-3. A Dana Sterns kill cut the lead to two at 6-4, but an ace serve by Marcie Bomhack put the margin at three (7-4). With a block by Rosie Snow and Suzie Stiling and two Irish errors Ohio State tied the game at seven. The Irish responded with three points, an OSU error, a ace serve by Bomhack and a kill by Denise Boylan to take a 10-7 lead. OSU’s Snow, with a kill, cut the lead to 10-8 and a three-point run by OSU gave the Buckeyes an 11-10 lead off an ace serve by Katie Virtue and kills by Shelly Draeger and Rosie Snow. Notre Dame tied the match at 11 with a block by Mary Leffers and Boyland and gained the lead at 12-11 on an OSU error. The Buckeyes, with an overpass kill by Sue Calligaris tied the game at 12. Notre Dame regained the lead with an OSU error at 13-12, but an OSU block by Anne Botica and Katie Virtue tied the game at 13. Rosie Snow’s overpass solo block put the Buckeyes at game point (14-13). The Irish stopped three game point and with a kill by Kristy Kreher tied the game at 14. After several side outs, Ohio State got the serve back and an ace serve by Shelly Draeger gave OSU a 15-14 lead and serving its fourth game point. In the next rally, an Irish attack error ended the game for OSU at 16-14. OSU hit .280 for the game to .256 for the Irish.
With an ace serve by Shelly Draeger and a kill by Jen Flynn, Ohio State took a 2-0 lead in game four. Denise Boyland put the Irish on the board with a kill making the lead 2-1. An ace serve by Rosie Snow put the Buckeyes up 3-1. Draeger added another ace along with a kill by Flynn to give Ohio State a 5-1 lead. After a Notre Dame time out, two Irish errors expanded the OSU lead to 7-1. A Buckeye error cut the OSU lead to 7-2 and a solo block by Christi Girton made it 7-3. The Irish then picked up an kill by Girton, an ace serve by Denise Boylan and a kill by Kristy Kreher to close to within one at 7-6. Following an OSU time out, the Buckeyes scored three straight points on a Flynn kill, a Snow kill and a block by Katie Virtue and Sue Calligaris to take a 10-6 lead. That lead was cut to 10-7 on an OSU error. After a kill by Flynn for the sideout, a Notre Dame error put the OSU lead at 11-7. Three consecutive kills by Snow put the Buckeyes at match point at 14-7. The Irish stopped two match points before Snow’s kill ended the match at 15-7. The Buckeyes’ hit .394 for the game to .241 for Notre Dame.
For the match, Notre Dame outhit Ohio State .321 to .296 and outblocked the Buckeyes 16 to 10. OSU had a 46 to 35 advantage in digs and a season high 12 ace serve to four for the Irish. Shelly Draeger had a career-high four aces for OSU.
Quoting Ohio State’s head coach Jim Stone: We’re realy glad we won. I thought Notre Dame player really well, expecially the first game and a half. They could have also won game three.
Overall, I’m pleased with our team. I’m very pleased with our effort tonight, but we’ll have to play better tomorrow.
I thought we were serving too easy (in game one). I was encouraging people to be more aggressive. Notre Dame was in synch the whole time. I told them we needed to be more aggressive and more emotional.
