Box Score SCRANTON, Pa. – The Notre Dame of Maryland University volleyball team pulled out a five-set victory over Colonial States Athletic Conference opponent #4 Marywood University Tuesday night to claim their first playoff victory, and the second in school history since the lacrosse team in 2008.  The volleyball program has qualified for playoffs in six of their last 10 seasons and saw their highest seeding this season, ranked fifth overall.

The Gators had three players record over 10 kills, led by senior Cassidy Keller with 17 and a .294 hitting percentage.  Junior Bobbi McDowell posted 12 kills over the five sets, hitting for .276, adding a solo block and one assisted block.  Freshmen Mary Marquez and Kayleigh Davis recorded impressive offensive and defensive numbers with Marquez tallying 10 kills and eight digs while Davis had eight kills and nine digs.  Feeding the offense, junior Jamie Reyes posted 45 assists while also adding a team high three aces.  Pacing the defense, senior Cleaya Antes registered 24 digs in the match and now moves to second for Notre Dame's career dig list with 1,675.

The Gators opened up the match scoring back-to-back points off kills from Keller and Davis.  Throughout the first set, the Gators and Pacer would keep the game close, but Notre Dame would see their largest lead of the set at six point, holding game point, 24-18.  Marywood would score three point before Keller would end with a kill from Reyes.  Final score of the first set, 25-21.

Again to open the second set, Notre Dame would jump out to an early two-point lead, this time capitalizing on hitting errors by Marywood.  The Pacers would charge back scoring four straight points, Marywood now up 4-2.  The Gators would see the score tied at six apiece after hitting errors from Marywood.  The Gators and Pacers would trade points for the remainder of the set until Notre Dame was able to string together a trio of kills by Keller to claim the second set, 25-21. 

Through the first 13 points of the third set Notre Dame and Marywood would see the score tied three times.  Despite staying within three points of the Pacers for the majority of the third set, the Gators would not hold a lead for the entirety of the third set and would fall, 21-25.

In the fourth set, Notre Dame would jump out ahead, holding a 3-1 lead off a pair of kills by Keller and an ace by Reyes.  Notre Dame and Marywood would again trade points, the score now tied at six apiece.  The Pacers would go on a six-point serve run to hold a 12-6 lead over the Gators that Notre Dame could not recover from.  Notre Dame would get back within one of Marywood, but their rally would fall short as they fell in the fourth set, 22-25. 

After holding a 2-0 lead over Marywood, the CSAC Quarterfinal match would come down to the result of game five, a race to 15.  Notre Dame would score the first two points of the fifth set off of an error by Marywood and a service ace by Reyes.  After trading points, a kill by Marywood would end up being the Pacers last points of the night.  After a kill by McDowell, Davis would go on an eight-point serve run to close out the match, 15-5.  Notre Dame would claim the five set victory over Marywood, 3-2, and advance to their first CSAC Semifinal match.

Notre Dame will now travel to Cabrini College to face the undefeated Cavaliers in the CSAC Semifinal match, Thursday.