3 takeaways: Assumption volleyball's season ends in state semifinals loss to Notre Dame
WINCHESTER, Ky. — With a trip to the state championship on the line Friday afternoon, Assumption's late-game magic ran out.
"We've been in a lot of these five-set matches," coach Ron Kordes said. "I told them in the fifth 'We've been doing this all year, let's go get one more.' Unfortunately it just didn't work out that way."
No. 1 Assumption fell to Notre Dame 3-2 (25-15, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-7) in Friday's KHSAA state volleyball semifinal at George Rogers Clark High School. The Rockets led 2-1 after the third set but the Pandas, led by University of Louisville commit Kamden Schrand, engineered a thrilling comeback.
With the loss, Assumption's season comes to a close at 34-8. Notre Dame moves to face Paul Laurence Dunbar in the state championship at 7 p.m. Friday.
Here's three takeaways from the Rockets' loss:
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Flat start
The Rockets lost their two previous matchups to Notre Dame this season and the Pandas had them flustered to start the game. Notre Dame stormed out to an 8-3 lead and shut down Assumption's offense. Kordes praised Notre Dame's Schrand postgame.
"Their libero, we just couldn't get a ball down on that side of the court," Kordes said. "She wouldn't let anything down, but not just her – their defense was great."
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With Schrand able to withstand the pressure from Assumption's outside hitters, the Pandas held Assumption to one of its lowest set scores of the season. Notre Dame took the set 25-15 and immediately put Assumption in response mode.
"We've lost to them twice so we had to play a little bit differently than before," Kordes said. "We had nothing to lose with no reason to hold anything back, but I thought we came out tentative and got ourselves into trouble in the first set."
Assumption wakes up
After taking a 10-point shellacking in the first set, Assumption came out energized and turned the momentum on Notre Dame.
Charlotte Moriarty (18 kills), Chloe Smith (13 kills) and Alexis Strong (12 kills) displayed the full power of Assumption's depth throughout the next two sets. Unlike the opening stanza, Assumption jumped out quickly and maintained Notre Dame's momentum. The Pandas could score no more than two points at a time as Moriarty, Smith and Strong racked up kill after kill.
Every time the Pandas threw something at them, the Rockets had a player ready to respond. Despite Notre Dame's resilience, Assumption held off the Pandas to take the next two sets and roll to a 2-1 lead. All the Rockets needed was one more brilliant stretch and a trip to the state finals would be theirs.
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Nolan takes over
Moriarty, Smith and Strong may have had a good game, but nobody had an answer for Notre Dame's Sydney Nolan.
The Northwestern commit led Notre Dame with 25 kills Friday and helped lead the Pandas on their two-set comeback. After being dominated for the past two sets, Notre Dame started the fourth set trading points back and forth with the Rockets until Nolan started took over.
Notre Dame won the fourth set 25-22 and carried its momentum into the decisive final set.
The Pandas were too much for Assumption with the game on the line. Deadlocked at 6-6, the Pandas ended Assumption's season on a 9-1 run. Nolan last kill was the final blow to the Rockets' season.
"You can't let her have the ball where she got it late in the match," Kordes said. "There's no way to stop her. You might dig her once or twice or she might knock one out but overall she's going to hurt you."
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA Volleyball: Assumption falls to Notre Dame in state semifinals
