Box Score

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame left the Northeastern women's volleyball team feeling more blue than gold on Saturday morning, as the Fighting Irish won their first match of the season with a 3-1 (25-18, 25-19, 20-25, 25-17) win over the Huskies at the 2014 Shamrock Invitational.
 
Freshman setter Kristen Walding had a career-high 30 assists for Northeastern (4-5). The Deer Park, Illinois native also collected five digs, three blocks, and a kill in the match.
 
Brigitte Burcescu's 15 kills were the most on either side of the net, while sophomore middle hitter Caterina Rosander hammered seven kills on 14 attacks with one error, for a hitting percentage of .429. Teammate Jamie Bredahl dialed in four of the Huskies' six aces, and was also second on the team with 14.0 points and nine kills.
 
Natalia Skiba hit the 20-dig mark in her third consecutive match, totaling 23 on the day, while her backcourt partner Ashlee Asada tagged nine digs. Freshman middle blocker Taylor Reiter sent back five Irish attacks and picked up an ace and a kill as well.
 
Notre Dame (1-6) had four players with six or more kills, including senior Jeni Houser and freshman Sydney Kuhn. Houser posted 12 kills on 23 attacks with three errors and hit for .391, while her teammate Kuhn had 12 kills on 26 attacks with only two errors for a hitting percentage of .385.
 
The Fighting Irish broke a 2-2 tie in the first game with a kill by Houser and an ace by Kathleen Severyn. Northeastern grabbed two of the next three to pull back within one at 5-4, but Notre Dame would go on a three-point tear to open an 8-4 advantage over the Huskies.
 
After narrowing the gap to two at 9-7, Northeastern surrendered three straight points again to the Irish to trail 12-7, but the Huskies responded, winning four of the next five points to bring the set back to 13-11.
 
A strong serve by Megan Kehoe kept NU within reach at 15-13, but Notre Dame began bringing the heat, scoring five of the next seven points to lead by five, 20-15. Attacking errors were hard to come by though for the Irish in the first, who as a team only tallied two errors compared to the six made by Northeastern. The Huskies came as close as four the rest of the way, and Notre Dame rolled to a 25-18 first set win.
 
Despite relinquishing a 5-2 lead to Notre Dame to start the second game, NU capitalized on three Irish errors to tighten the set at 6-5. Bredahl kept the Huskies right on Notre Dame's heels, and ended a ten-point kill drought when her swing over the net made the Irish advantage 9-7. But the Northeastern attacking game struggled in the second set, as two straight errors gave the Irish a four-point lead at 12-8, and two more errors five points later put the Huskies in a 16-10 hole.
 
Down but not out, Northeastern would rally and score five of the next six points to slide within two at 17-15 and force a Notre Dame timeout, but the refocused Irish would throw together a 7-2 streak that eventually won them the set, 25-19.
 
Leading the match 2-0, the Irish offense broke out in the third set with a 7-3 run on four kills and an ace. However, Northeastern weathered the storm and slowly chipped away at the Notre Dame lead. Walding threw down a kill from Skiba to bring the score to 9-6, and two key service errors by the Irish kept the Huskies alive down just 14-11.
 
Burcescu's kill at 15-12 sparked a 7-3 run for Northeastern that saw the Huskies tie the set up at 18-18, and her back-to-back swings from Walding and Skiba gave the Huskies their first lead in the set at 20-19. Although the Irish tied the set back at 20-20, it was Northeastern's turn to get hot, and the Huskies ran away with the last five points of the set to win it 25-20.
 
Despite pushing the match to a fourth set, Notre Dame drained all of the momentum Northeastern had carried over from the third, and netted seven kills and two aces to go up 10-5. Walding found Bredahl and Rosander for back-to-back kills to narrow the lead, but Notre Dame would score six of the next eight points to cruise to a 16-9 advantage.
 
The Huskies showed signs that the match was not quite over yet when Bredahl smacked two consecutive aces to cap a three-point NU run. The two teams would throw alternating four-point runs on the scoreboard, but the Irish came out of their final huddle at 20-16 winning five of the last six points in the set to win the match 3-1.
 
Northeastern battles TCU in its third and final match of the 2014 Shamrock Invitational today at 5 p.m.