Printer-Friendly Format     E-mail this article     Sophomore Megan Fesl had nine kills on a .250 hitting percentage in Sunday's loss at St. John's.

 
Notre Dame Defeated By No. 23 St. John's In Three Games

Irish handed week's third loss after falling to ranked conference opponent.

Oct. 28, 2007

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QUEENS, N.Y. - Junior Justine Stremick (Langdon, N.D./Langdon Area) posted a .381 hitting percentage and was the lone Irish player to record double-digit kills as the University of Notre Dame volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (30-21, 30-24, 30-23) BIG EAST Conference match to No. 23 St. John's on Sunday.

Stremick's 11 kills paced the Notre Dame (9-12 overall, 5-5 BIG EAST) offense, as the team finished the day with a .301 hitting percentage at Carnesecca Arena. The Red Storm (24-3 overall, 9-1 BIG EAST) checked in with a .421 hitting clip and 10 aces - seven of those off the hand of Wioleta Leszczynska - and had five players complete the match with at least 10 kills. Leszczynska also had a match-high 40 assists.

Stremick also had three blocks for Notre Dame, as did senior Adrianna Stasiuk (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South).

Senior Ashley Tarutis (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos) had 15 of her 22 assists in game one when the Irish hit .394, but were trumped by St. John's hitting percentage of .594. The Red Storm had 20 kills on 32 chances with only a single error. Both Stremick and Serinity Phillips (Valley Center, Calif./Valley Center) had four kills in the period for Notre Dame. A Stremick kill brought the Irish within four, 25-21, when St. John's pulled out with a 5-0 run for the win.

Shelling out 10 assists on the day for the Irish was sophomore Jamel Nicholas (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland), who helped her squad to a .361 hitting mark in game two. ND had 15 kills and only two errors in the period, also finishing the match with one fewer hitting error (12) than St. John's (13).

St. John's scored the first seven points of game three and would lead by as many as 12 (16-4). The Irish charged back to eat into the deficit and trailed by three when sophomore Kim Kristoff served up an ace and Megan Fesl converted one of her nine kills in the match to make it a 26-23 game.

With a three-match roadswing in the books, Notre Dame comes home for a Nov. 2 (Friday) league match against Georgetown at the Joyce Center. First serve will be at 4 p.m. (ET).

--ND--