Notre Dame Sweeps GPS In Volleyball

Mallory Hein Leads Lady Irish In 2-0 Sweep

  • Monday, September 22, 2014
  • John Hunt

Notre Dame volleyball coach Ted Hackett  wasn't real sure how well his team would play on Monday evening against non-district rival GPS, but he seemed pretty happy following the 2-0 win over the Bruisers in a match that took just over 35 minutes.

The first set wasn't close as Notre Dame broke from a 13-13 tie to win by 25-13 as senior Mallory Hein recorded the last 12 service points, including the last one with an ace.

The second set was much closer as there were 14 ties and seven lead changes, but when all was said and done, the Lady Irish had improved to 15-11 with the 25-23 win as they clinched the match.

The Bruisers had called a timeout with the score tied at 23, but Kaylee Stone gave Notre Dame a big boost with an ace to put her team up by one before Claire VanderWerf's block on the next point clinched the win.

"I wasn't sure how we'd respond after a tough weekend at the Brentwood tournament, but I guess the day off yesterday did them some good," Hackett said shortly after the match ended.

"We got a great run on serves from Mallory in the first set, but the second one was a lot closer.  Overall I'm pleased as we just keep getting better.  That last one could have gone either way, but Kaylee put her serve right in the zone we wanted and we won it on the next volley, but it's nice to get a win against a quality opponent like GPS," the Notre Dame coach concluded.

GPS coach Paul Brock has seen a lot of improvement from his girls since the season began, but he wasn't real impressed with their latest performance.

"That was just a very poor effort on our part.  It's hard to find words to express how I feel when it's about effort.  We had as many service errors as anything, but it seemed like they didn't want to play against their friends," he suggested.

"If we had a bright spot today, it had to be freshman Hannah Kincer and Cami Shands didn't do too bad, but we couldn't pass.  I played everyone on our bench except one.  I kept looking for someone who wanted to play and I didn't have much luck," he added.

There weren't many stats for either team, but Stone had three kills for Notre Dame while teammate Keri Klassen had six digs and Ragen Dobson 10 assists.  Hein added four aces.

Shands had six kills for the Bruisers while Reagan Williams had eight assists and Jenna Simpson seven digs.

Notre Dame returns to action with a critical District 7-AA match at Chattanooga Christian while GPS is now 15-17 and returns to action at Red Bank on Wednesday.

GPS STATS:

Lilly Berger -- 3 kills, 2 aces, 4 digs

Hannah Kincer -- 1 block

Courtlyn Martino -- 3 digs

Jenna Simpson -- 1 kill, 1 ace, 7 digs

Helen Johnston -- 1 block

Angela Bonds -- 4 kills, 2 digs

Mackenzie Hobbs -- 4 digs

Reagan Williams -- 1 kill, 8 assists, 1 ace, 1 dig

Gabby Hughes -- 4 assists

Cami Shands -- 6 kills, 1 block.

NOTRE DAME STATS:

Keri Klassen -- 6 digs

Mallory Hein -- 4 aces, 2 kills, 3 digs

Tess Scobey -- 3 kills, 1 block, 1 dig

Ragen Dobson -- 1 ace, 1 kill, 10 assists, 3 digs

Claire VanderWerf -- 1 kill, 1.5 blocks

Kaylee Stone -- 2 aces, 3 kills, 2 blocks, 2 digs

Grace VanderWerf -- 2 kills, 3 blocks, 5 digs.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@Comcast.net)

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