Perryville tops Notre Dame in three sets

PERRYVILLE -- Perryville and Notre Dame have stoked a heated rivalry on the volleyball court over the past few years.

Tuesday's meeting added more fuel with the usual intensity and another three-set match. It came complete with 14 ties and 10 lead changes.

"It always seems to come down to that final set no matter who the hot team is any given year," Perryville coach Dave Mirly said. "They always have a great program and we've built a pretty good one up here, so I think anytime we meet it's going to be a high caliber matchup."

With his team down a set to the visiting Bulldogs on Tuesday, Mirly called on his team to make adjustments.

Perryville (14-6) wasn't passing well and failed to make defensive reads against Notre Dame (14-5) for much of the first set.

Perryville's Brooke Hogard celebrates with her teammates after winning the third set in their match against Notre Dame Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 in Perryville. (GLENN LANDBERG)

The Pirates answered their coaches' call and rallied to defeat the Bulldogs 18-25, 25-14, 25-18.

"We were a little off during the first set, and Notre Dame had everything to do with that," Mirly said. "They read our hits very well, and for us it was just getting back to the basics of where to set the ball and making sure the passes were on point so that our attackers could get good clean hits over the net."

The squads stayed within one point of each other early in the first set before Notre Dame went on a 5-0 run to take a 14-9 lead, forcing Mirly to call a timeout.

After the timeout, Perryville made a 5-2 run to pull within 16-15, but two kills apiece from Notre Dame senior Lydia Goodson and junior Abby McAlister made it 20-15.

The Bulldogs closed out Perryville, which never led in the set, thanks to four Pirate errors and a few more kills from Goodson.

Perryville's Brooke Hogard meets Notre Dame's Lydia Goodson at the net in the second set Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 in Perryville. (GLENN LANDBERG)

Notre Dame coach Tara Stroup said the first set was the best she had seen the Bulldogs play all season.

"I see them in practice all the time. I know what they can do," Stroup said. "I was waiting for a game where we all played well together at the same time, and for it to be against a good team like them [Perryville], it was a really exciting start."

Perryville responded in the second set by opening up an 11-5 lead. Notre Dame got within five points at 13-8, but a kill by Perryville senior Alex Spears and two blocks from junior Brooke Hogard started a 7-2 run to extend the lead to 20-10, the Pirates largest of the second set.

"I think we all just realized that we needed to step up if we wanted to win," Spears said about Perryville's performance in the second set. "We were trying too hard to be perfect and making our own mistakes, so in the next game we kind of all looked at each other and knew we had to play more as a team and have fun."

The Bulldogs committed three errors down the stretch and Perryville senior Brooke Moll added a kill as the Pirates even the match at 1-1.

Notre Dame committed 10 errors in the second set and a total of 24 in the match.

"Those were definitely costly there at the end, and some of those we would have liked to have back obviously," Stroup said. "When we're working on trying to hit certain spots and they get blocked once or twice, you want to hit over it, and those were just a little too high and ended up going out of bounds. That's definitely something we need to work on."

Perryville began the final set with an 11-6 run. Hogard had five blocks and added two kills to open up the early lead. The Pirates widened the margin to 16-10 before the Bulldogs closed the gap to 19-16.

However, Notre Dame never got closer as it struggled against Perryville's blocking game at the net. Hogard blocked two more Notre Dame attacks down the stretch of the final set, while Spears and Perryville senior Daria Thompson had a combined block to close out the Bulldogs and emerge with the win.

Perryville had 16 blocks in the match, a season-high according to Mirly.

"We're considered a short team compared to a lot of teams; I think our tallest girl is 5 feet, 9 inches," Spears said. "So when we do get blocks it's really exciting since we aren't that tall, especially when we get combined blocks. It gets our adrenaline pumping."

Spears had 11 kills and added two blocks and six digs.

Hogard recorded four kills to go along with five blocks, while senior Libbi Schnurbusch had eight digs to lead the Pirates.

McAlister paced the Bulldogs with 12 kills and Goodson added 10.

Junior Sam Feeney led Notre Dame with 24 assists and 18 digs.