BALTIMORE, Md. --The Notre Dame Gators battled Bryth Athyn in the Colonial States Athletic Conference Semifinal at home on Wednesday night. The #1 seeded Gators hosted the 4th seeded Lions in the first ever playoff match held at Notre Dame.
The Gators are coming off an impressive 8-0 conference record and going 23-4 overall.
Notre Dame scored first but fell behind 4-1 early. Then the Gators, led by sophomore
Sarah Sweet made an 8-1 run. With the score 12-7, Junior
Kayleigh Davis had back-to-back-to-back kills to push the Gators forward. The Lions battled but could only manage 18 points as Notre Dame finished out the first set 25-18.
The second set started off with a 6-2 run by the Gators. It was back and forth until Notre Dame took a commanding lead by scoring the next seven out of eight points. The Gators reached the 20 point mark and didn't look back winning the second set 25-12.
The third set provided the most difficulty for the Gators. Early in the set junior
Mary Marquez recorded her 1000th dig of her career, an amazing accomplishment. Up 17-13 the Lions had their biggest lead of the night. With help from senior
Ricelle Taganas, Sweet, Davis, and freshman
Alyssa Kerns the Gators fought back to tie the game at 22. Bryn Athyn wouldn't go down easy as they forced the Gators to dig deep and they pulled out the 27-25 set victory.
The team had seven services aces led by Sweet and junior
Sara Few with three each. Sweet also led the team in kills with 15 followed by Davis with 13. Kerns had a notable seven kills adding to a team total of 44.
WHAT'S NEXT?
The win puts Notre Dame in their first CSAC Championship. They will face the #2 seeded Keystone on Saturday at 5pm at home.
