Notre Dame falls short in third-place volleyball match

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The members of the Notre Dame volleyball team reluctantly left the line in which they were standing when they received their medals.

Their trip to the Class 3 final four had not ended as they hoped, but there still were droves of parents wanting one last photo of the team -- this time with the latest state trophy for the Notre Dame athletic program.

This time it was a fourth-place trophy as the Bulldogs lost 25-18, 25-13 to Logan-Rogersville in the third-place match Saturday at the Municipal Auditorium.

Dutifully they lined up, some squatting in the front, others standing in the back. And they smiled.

For dozens of pictures they smiled, until finally someone started crying, which made everyone laugh.

Allyson Bradshaw concentrates on a pass during the Class 3 third-place match Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.

"I don't know what was going through our heads," senior Lindsay Strieker said. "We really wanted to win third place."

Strieker did know why she and her teammates were laughing.

"I was looking over at Meghan [Dohogne] and she was crying and I was just like, 'Meghan, you can't make me cry' and then I looked at Alyssa [Ruopp] and she started crying and I was like, 'Alyssa, not you, too.'

"Then I started crying and we were laughing about that."

After the photo-taking was finished, Notre Dame coach Tara Stroup took her team aside for nearly 10 minutes to share a few last words with them.

Senior Lindsay Strieker passes during the Class 3 third-place match Saturday.

"I just told them this is just a bad ending right here, right now," Stroup said. "I think it would have been a little bit easier had we won third, but I really don't think that this result was going to make much difference. They're so sad that the whole thing's over."

The Bulldogs and Logan-Rogersville split two games in round-robin play Friday. Notre Dame lost a long first game 29-27, but rebounded to win the second game 26-24.

Notre Dame never led in either game against Logan-Rogersville in the third-place match and never seemed to be able to gain any offensive momentum. As a result, the team spent most of the match on defense, returning attack after attack from the Logan-Rogersville offense before the Wildcats eventually found a hole in the defense.

"We couldn't get any offense going," Stroup said. "Our passing, our serve-receive was really good. We were passing it right up and then we just couldn't get a kill."

Stroup said the pressure of facing the team's last match of season, win or loss, might have caused the problems.

Notre Dame fans cheer during the Class 3 third-place match Saturday.

"I just don't know," she said. "I just think some of our key players were a little bit off tonight, the ones that we usually rely on for kills were just a little shaken up. Whether that was because they knew that this was our last game with this team or third place was riding on it, I don't know, but it seemed like it was a little off from the beginning."

Strieker led Notre Dame with four kills while Dohogne and Allyson Bradshaw finished with three apiece. Shannon Brennan had six assists for the Bulldogs.

Stroup held back her five senior players, including Dohogne and Strieker, for a few extra minutes after the match.

"I asked them up there awhile ago," Stroup said, referring to all the tears in the team's final meeting, "is this about third and forth place, and they were like, 'No, this is just the end.'"