Irish Go 6-0 to Take Goodrich Invite

Notre Dame improved to 21-4-2 as NDP took the Goodrich Invitational, its second tournament championship of the season, going 6-0 without dropping a single set. The Irish opened pool play by defeating Frankenmuth, who was coming off of a tournament title at Croswell Lexington 25-19, 25-11.  Notre Dame then went on to defeat Brandon (25-16, 25-9) and Bentley (25-10, 25-9). The Irish came out of pool play as the number one seed, just edging out a strong North Branch team by two points.  In the opening match of the gold elimination round the Irish sent East Lansing home with scores of 25-9, 25-19.  In the semi-final round the Irish took on  Linden, who had defeated Frankenmuth, and once again prevailed with scores of 25-15, 25-22 after overcoming a and eight-point 19-11 deficit in the final set to clinch a spot in the championship match. In the other semi-final matchup host Goodrich, playing very strong volleyball all day,  defeated defending state champions, North Branch. The title match between Notre Dame and Goodrich did not disappoint as the first set saw 21 ties or lead changes before Notre Dame came out on top 26-24.  The second set was all Irish as they dominated the Martians en route to a 25-10 win. Senior libero Emma Kowalkowski showed why she is a Miss Volleyball finalist as she racked up 104 digs, 13 kills, 40 points (20 aces including 6 in the championship match alone), and 21 assists in leading the Irish to victory. Offensively the Irish used a balanced attack to win not only during the title match also throughout the entire tournament.  Four different attackers collected at least 20 kills: freshmen Maddy Chinn (38) and Natalie Risi (28) and seniors Jackie Lopez (25) and Eric Schwegman (22). Senior Marisa Ciszewski dished out 78 assists on the day and sophomore Gabby Shilling collected 12 blocks for the Irish.
 

INQUIRE
ND Athletics