Notre Dame volleyball team defeats Jackson in straight sets

Notre Dame volleyball coach Tara Stroup witnessed the composure of a mature team on Thursday night when her Bulldogs squad hosted Jackson.

Stroup and her team weren't sure what to expect even though the Bulldogs had faced the Indians over the weekend in the Dig for Life Challenge. One set Notre Dame won with ease and the other remained somewhat closer en route to winning the gold bracket title at the tournament.

The Bulldogs realized early Thursday that the Indians wouldn't pose an easy task, and after a sluggish start in the first set, Notre Dame rallied to win 25-18, 25-13 at Notre Dame High School.

"We've played some young teams, and our experience has kind of won us a couple of games just because they don't seem to freeze like they did last year," Stroup said, noting last year's team had just one senior. "And they realize, 'Win or lose, we'll get through this and keep playing."

Stroup, who is confident in her team's offensive ability, has focused her players on improving their defense and passing. The game didn't start out well from those two facets for the Bulldogs.

The Indians had two serve aces in the first seven points of the game to take an early 5-2 lead.

"If we can put the ball in the setter's hands, we've got some girls that can swing, but our passing at the beginning of the game was not very good," Stroup said. "The first four or five passes went sideways."

A Jackson serve error, a lift violation and a violation for four hits allowed Notre Dame to tie it at 5. The first set was tied five more times after that.

After a net violation on Jackson tied it at 15-15, the Bulldogs used a 4-0 run, capped by a pair of kills from junior Allyson Jansen, to take the lead for good at 19-15 and force a Jackson timeout.

The Indians never came any closer. Jansen recorded her third kill of the set on an overpass, and junior Sam Brennan's kill pushed the lead to 21-15 and forced a second timeout.

Brennan and senior Abbie McAlister had back-to-back kills to take the opening set.

"You know, when you face Notre Dame, you're just facing a salty opponent," Jackson coach Tracy Robinson said. "I mean, you have to be on your game. They take advantage of your weaknesses, and we just fell to that, especially the second set. I though the first set, for about a run of 10 points, it was a battle back and forth, and then we seemed to have lost our confidence."

Notre Dame jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead in the second set with help from a Jackson net violation, serve error and three attack errors.

A 5-1 Bulldogs run concluded with a timeout from the Indians following a block by Jansen and sophomore Lexi Welter to push the lead to 12-4.

"I think we did a better job on defense that game and when we couldn't get a hard swing just keeping it in play, keeping it alive and letting them make mistakes or just capitalizing on their mistakes," Stroup said.

The Bulldogs pushed their lead to 13 on a kill off an over pass by Jansen, who finished with nine kills, that made it 23-10.

"Allyson had really, I think, a breakout game tonight," Stroup said. "She did a lot of good things solely based on hustle. She got nine or 10 kills and a lot of them our setter didn't set. It was over passes, and that was just her being alert, paying attention, being in the right place, and I really was happy with her effort tonight."

The Indians pulled within 11 points on a kill by senior Autumn Reid, who finished with six, but a Brennan kill completed the two-set sweep.

Robinson said she pushes her team in practice to work on moving and communicating more aggressively on the court and "taking care of things," and she didn't see as much of an improvement as she wanted to against Notre Dame.

"I told them that we need to make that change, that aggressive change, to be confident in their abilities," Robinson said, "and that we have to stick with the game plan that we provide them. If they can do that, we can hang with people."

The Indians dropped to 12-5-1 with the loss. They travel to face Kennett on Monday night.

"I don't think people have seen what we can do just yet," Robinson said. "If we can get it all together, I think we have a shot."

Notre Dame is now 16-2-1 on the season and plays at Bloomfield at 6 p.m. today.

"I felt like we came out and played hard," said McAlister, who finished with 11 kills. "We talked to each other, and we finished it. And that's all that matters."