Over the weekend, the Notre Dame volleyball team took on Clemson and Georgia Tech, splitting the two road matches.
Notre Dame had a long match to start its southern stretch of travel, beating Clemson in five sets on Friday. Heading into the match, purely looking at statistics, anyone could tell it would be a tight game, especially with the Irish almost beating top teams earlier in the season like Pitt, North Carolina and Florida State.
Leading the forces in this hard-fought match was none other than sophomore outside hitter Morgan Gaerte, who was one off her record number of kills against Illinois earlier this season, hitting 33 on the night. Gaerte, who had over 20 straight matches where she had double-digit kills, broke the streak when Notre Dame faced Miami earlier this season. However, in her last matches, she has proved that night was a one-off from her usual skills. Gaerte’s performance against Clemson made her the second player in program history to reach multiple games with more than 30 kills, with Christi Girton being the first back in 2000. In the fifth set, Gaerte had seven kills, which means that she scored about half of the points for the team alone, displaying how reliable a force she’s been for the Irish since the beginning of the season.
Aside from Gaerte, two Notre Dame players who didn’t see much court time until the back quarter of the season had a huge impact against the Tigers. Senior defensive specialist Cailey Dockery, who played at least a couple rotations in each of the matches this season, has recently been put into the opposite color jersey and stepped in as the Irish libero. Dockery had a career-high number of 26 digs and 11 assists, making it her first career double-double. Junior setter Lily Fenton has also seen court time for the first time in her Notre Dame career, in part because of senior setter Harmony Sample’s injury. She had a record-breaking match with her first double-double on 22 assists and 12 digs.
The Irish struggled in the sense that they usually out-block their opponent and as a result can gain lots of points defensively. However, Clemson’s slightly higher skill level and height made it a struggle for Notre Dame to get clean blocks and extra points where they needed them most. The Irish also struggled since they didn’t have key player and junior outside hitter Sydney Helmers for an unknown reason.
After the long match, Notre Dame traveled to Atlanta to face off against Georgia Tech on Sunday, where it fell in a 3-1 contest to the Yellow Jackets. The game was extremely back and forth, with both teams struggling to take the lead from one another until the back half of each of the sets, where one would inevitably assert dominance and pull ahead.
Gaerte continued her impressive weekend with 23 kills and a hitting percentage of .459, which is extremely efficient for someone against a defense as well-crafted as Georgia Tech. This game allowed Gaerte to surpass 440 kills, which is the most by any Irish player since 2017, when Jemma Yeadon had 453. Senior hitter Lucy Trump has been a key player for Notre Dame in her final season in every position. Trump has been an incredible server for the Irish, leading with 31 aces, placing her sixth in the entirety of the ACC. She’s also shown impressive skill at the net, with 74 kills and 17 blocks on the year, stepping into whichever role her team needs her to the most. Defensively, sophomore middle blocker Anna Bjork helped Notre Dame with its third-set comeback, getting key blocks to help the Irish on a 6-1 run. She has been consistent through the entire season, being second on the team with 102 blocks. Bjork had a career-high of 10 blocks, whereas her blocking counterpart, sophomore middle blocker Grace Langer, totaled four.
Notre Dame only has one away match against Virginia Tech before returning home for Senior Day against Wake Forest. With the release of the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball bracket looming, the Irish will look to increase their statistics to close out a strong season.
