Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Head coach Debbie Brown, who picked up career win No. 500 last season, notched her 400th victory as Notre Dame's head coach against Syracuse.

 
Offense Catches Fire To Give Head Coach Debbie Brown 400th Win At Notre Dame

Irish head coach reaches milestone in 3-1 win over Syracuse.

Oct. 14, 2007

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. - University of Notre Dame volleyball head coach Debbie Brown collected her 400th win since taking over the Irish program with a 3-1 victory over Syracuse on Sunday afternoon in the Women's Building. Notre Dame dropped the first game, 26-30, before rattling off wins in the next three frames (31-29, 30-24, 30-24) in a 3-1 conference battle.

The win was No. 517 for Brown, now in her 17th campaign with the Irish and 23rd season overall as a head coach.

"One of the very positive things from the match was our offensive balance," Brown noted. "All five hitters had double-digit kills, and Ashley (Tarutis) did a great job of keeping everyone involved in the win."

Leading the Irish with 18 kills and a .371 hitting percentage was junior Justine Stremick (Langdon, N.D./Langdon Area), with senior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) adding 17 kills on 41 swats for a .317 clip.

Notre Dame (8-9 overall, 4-3 BIG EAST) finished the match by hitting .277 in the four-game affair, though Syracuse (12-10 overall, 3-4 BIG EAST) managed a .290 percentage on 15 fewer attempts.

Senior Ashley Tarutis dished out 58 assists - her highest total of the season - and sophomores Serinity Phillips (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center) and Megan Fesl (Arlington Heights, Ill./John Hersey) each knocked down 13 kills. Freshman Kellie Sciacca (Monument, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) also wrapped up the match with 13 converted attacks.

The Irish had 23 and 24 kills in games two and three, respectively, following an opening stanza in which they squandered a 7-4 lead by dropping behind the Orange, 15-10. Syracuse would open that lead to eight points on four occasions. Three late kills by Sciacca helped chop the margin to three (29-26) when Brittany Kern gave the Orange their final point of the game.

Twenty assists from Tarutis helped the Notre Dame hitters record a .320 mark in the second game. This time, the Irish took control of the game early and held on to its steady advantage with an eight-point lead (23-15) past the midway mark. Ahead 28-21, seven scores by the Orange tied the game and the teams tangled horns again, 29-29. Fesl added a kill to put Notre Dame up by one and stepped up for a solo block on Kacie MacTavish's attack for the win.

Stremick and Sciacca each recorded six kills in the third game and Tarutis got in on the action with a pair of her own as the Irish built a solid lead, 11-4, out of the gate. Another solo block by Fesl put ND on top by double digits and its largest lead of the match, 22-12.

In the final period, the Orange streaked to an 18-12 advantage after four early lead changes, including an initial Irish lead on Sciacca's game-opening ace. Sciacca finished with three aces, tying a career-high. Successive kills by Stremick forced a 19-19 tie, and then Notre Dame gained the lead for good when Phillips fed Fesl to make the count 22-21.

Syracuse had four players with 10 or more digs and three with double-figure kills, led by Cheryl Cobbina with 17.

Visits to LSU (Oct. 23), Connecticut (Oct. 27) and St. John's (Oct. 28) will follow a home conference matchup with DePaul next Friday (Oct. 19) at the Joyce Center.

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