Coming off a hard five-set loss to Florida State this past weekend, Notre Dame is currently 9-15 on the year and 6-10 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. With only four matches left in the season, including two this weekend, the Irish are looking to finish strong, despite their limited chance at making the NCAA Tournament later this year. Although the season hasn’t ended the way many were hoping for it to, players such as sophomore outside hitter Morgan Gaerte have been beacons of light for the Notre Dame program. Gaerte is currently fourth in the ACC in kills per set with 4.28, which also makes her 37th in the nation. Aside from Gaerte, senior outside hitter Lucy Trump has made a recent impact for the Irish, leading the team with 31 aces this season and 110 in her career, two away from the top-10 in program history. Blocking has also been key for the Irish, where sophomore middle blockers Anna Bjork and Grace Langer help Notre Dame place fifth in the ACC in blocks per set with 2.58.
Clemson
The Tigers are currently in the bottom half of the ACC, sitting at 16-12 on the year, with a disappointing 4-12 mark in the ACC. Within the ACC, Clemson has lost to top programs such as Florida State, Miami, Pitt, SMU, North Carolina, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. Their ACC wins come against the likes of California, Virginia, Syracuse and Boston College. The series between Clemson and Notre Dame is currently 17 matches deep, with the Irish leading 11-6. However, the Tigers won the most recent matchup 3-1 in their home gym in November 2023.
This season’s iteration of the Tigers has lots of main attackers, displaying their ability to spread out the offense and keep the other team’s defense on their toes. One of these is senior pin attacker Mia McGrath, who has started all 28 matches and leads the team with 287 kills, notching 2.78 kills per set. Behind McGrath, junior pin hitter Kennedy Wagner has 208 kills and 3.85 kills per set, despite playing in half the number of games. She ranks seventh in the ACC in kills per set as well as overall points with 4.31 per set. Their strong hitting numbers are largely thanks to sophomore setter Kathrine Sandt, who has a total of 958 assists on the year, ranking sixth in the ACC. Although junior McKenna Gildon is a libero, she’s added 126 assists of her own, displaying how well the Clemson attack can hit out-of-system. In addition, Gildon has 390 total digs, averaging 3.86 digs per set, making her fifth-best in the ACC. After their pair of sweeps against Notre Dame’s second opponents of the weekend, Georgia Tech, the Tigers will look to bounce back against the Irish on their home floor.
Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech is currently hanging with the big dogs in the ACC, sitting at 10-6 in the conference. Their six losses came against Miami, SMU, Pitt, North Carolina, Stanford and Boston College. Their wins came against Florida State, Duke, Wake Forest, NC State, California, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Clemson, taking two in a row from the Tigers. Historically, Georgia Tech leads the Irish 10-6 in their series, winning their last three meetings in dominant fashion.
The Jackets are led offensively by freshman outside hitter Lameen Mambu, who has 258 kills on the year and averages 3.04 per set. Freshman outside hitter Anna Fiedorowicz is coming off an instrumental week, as she collected her first career conference honor, being named ACC Freshman of the Week. Fiedorowicz led the Jackets through two sweeps over Clemson with 28 kills, 4.67 kills per set and an attacking percentage of 0.479 across both matches. In the setting department, Georgia Tech relies on junior Heloise Soares, who totals 890 sets on the year and 9.67 per set. Freshman setter Sara Toth has also gone on some run to give her a taste of the collegiate experience. The rookie has 115 assists on her stat sheet in 2025. Riding a three-match win streak, the Jackets will look to start a late push in the conference this weekend.
Notre Dame travels to Clemson on Friday with the first serve set for 6 p.m. They then continue south to face Georgia Tech on Sunday at 1 p.m.
