SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Finishing its four-match road swing on Sunday, the Virginia Tech volleyball team fell to Notre Dame 3-0 at Purcell Pavilion.
Sophomore Kaity Smith registered seven kills and a team-high 10 digs for the Hokies (12-8, 3-5 ACC), while Jemma Yeadon led the Fighting Irish (11-7, 5-3 ACC) with a match-high 18 kills and five blocks.
Senior Jaila Tolbert put down four kills to begin the match, but Notre Dame got out to a four-point lead at 15-11, forcing a Tech timeout. Out the break, sophomore Marisa Cerchio recorded two kills, however, the Irish kept their momentum and would go on to win the first set 25-14.
Following a kill by sophomore Ester Talamazzi to make it a one-point deficit, 6-5, Notre Dame scored nine of the next 12 points to take a 15-8. The Hokies responded with a combination block by Cerchio and Tolbert, but the Irish stayed hot and won the second frame by the same score as the first set, 25-14.
Tolbert pounded down back-to-back kills to give the Hokies a 4-1 lead, but Notre Dame answered with a 9-1 run to gain a 10-5 advantage. Tech trimmed the five-point deficit after service aces from freshman Sarah Jane Lynch and redshirt senior Rhegan Mitchell to tie it at 13-all, causing an Irish timeout. Notre Dame would work its way back to gaining another five-point lead, 22-17, but the Hokies cut it to 23-20 after a kill by Smith. The Irish would get the next two points, though, to win it 25-20.
NOTES
- Smith's six straight matches of 10 or more kills came to a close, owning seven, but the Kentucky native racked up 10 digs, marking her seventh contest of the season with double-digit digs.
- Talamazzi recorded a team-high nine kills and six digs. With the nine kills, Talamazzi had 19 kills on the weekend (10 vs. No. 22 Louisville), marking her best two-match stretch in the kills department in ACC play.
- Tolbert posted seven kills and two blocks. The two blocks extended her streak of one or more in a match, with her now being up to nine straight.
- Mitchell dished out 22 assists and scooped up seven digs, her most since Sept. 23 versus Virginia (seven digs).
- Freshman Talyn Jackson came off the bench and collected nine assists, her most since Sept. 9 against IUPUI. The Nevada native also had a block and a dig.
QUOTING HEAD COACH JILL WILSON
On it being a similar result to Friday's loss, but what were the positive differences:
"I think in the third set we did a nice job of risking, being aggressive and being good as a team together," Tech coach Jill Wilson said. "I thought that was a good step. I don't think we started it quite early enough against a very balanced Notre Dame team, though."
On a balanced attack with four players having six or more kills:
"We didn't really have our passing tempo correct until really the third set," Wilson said. "Notre Dame did a good job of serving us short and deep. We finally kind of fixed it and found our tempo, making it improve quite a bit."
On what the team will look to improve upon this week at practice with two home matches on deck:
"I think we have a great opportunity heading into roughly the second half of the conference season," Wilson said. "We have improved in a lot of areas. If we could just put all of it together, I think we could really do some fun things."
WHAT IS NEXT
- The Hokies will head back to Blacksburg and play host to Wake Forest (8-12, 3-5 ACC) on Friday at 6 p.m. ET and Duke (9-8, 3-5 ACC) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum.
