Friday, September 09, 2011

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Plagued by hitting woes for the second-straight match, the Lipscomb volleyball squad fell 3-0 (12-25, 16-25, 17-25) to host Notre Dame in the “Golden Dome Invitational” at the Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Ind.

“Notre Dame played extremely well obviously” said Lipscomb head coach Brandon Rosenthal.  “(Having) only two hitting errors is pretty impressive.  At points we did some nice stuff and put some pressure on them and fought back, but we needed a little more defensive effort.”

In the first-ever meeting of the two clubs, Lipscomb (2-6) had no answer for Notre Dame’s Andrea McHugh, who notched a match-high 16 kills on the night and posted a .577 hitting percentage.  UND’s Jeni Houser topped McHugh’s average with a .647 effort as part of a .549 night for the Fighting Irish (4-2, RV). 

“Right now it’s a young team that’s trying to get comfortable with each other and the injuries have delayed that,” said Rosenthal.  “We just haven’t had that opportunity to play together all the time and we’ve got a young team and some of them are accustomed to getting away with things they can’t get away with at this level.”

Sophomore outside hitter Kaycee Green led the Lady Bisons with a nine-kill effort.  Freshman outside hitter Lauren Ford notched seven kills matching the total of senior middle blocker Katie Rose.

Lipscomb continues action in the “Golden Dome Invitational” on Saturday taking on Valparaiso at 4:30 p.m in the first-ever meeting between the Lady Bisons and the Crusaders.