Top-ranked Arrows topple stubborn Eagles

St. Ursula's Cassidy Croci, 6, and Erin Williams, 4, block the shot of Notre Dame Academy's Morgan Fioritto in the first game. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge | Photo Reprints

It may be one of the area's biggest rivalries in girls sports whenever St. Ursula and Notre Dame get together, regardless of the sport.

Thursday night at the Notre Dame gymnasium was no exception as a standing-room-only crowd of 1,400 saw the visiting Arrows tested before completing a 7-0 sweep of the Three Rivers Athletic Conference regular-season volleyball schedule.

The 25-14, 25-14, 23-25, 25-22 victory ran the top-ranked, defending Division I state champions' overall record to a perfect 19-0 with only the TRAC championship tournament at Lima Senior remaining on Oct. 15 before the start of sectional play.

St. Ursula looked like it would make easy work of the underdog Eagles (8-8, 4-3) through two games.

Things didn't look much better early in Game 3 for the Eagles, as St. Ursula bolted to a quick 9-2 lead after four straight points on the serve of Madison Haupricht.

But Notre Dame coach Jeff Pitzen called timeout, shortened his team's rotation, and the Eagles responded with a 13-3 run to grab a 15-12 lead.

"Give credit to the Eagles," veteran Arrows head coach John Buck said. "They didn't quit. Even though we got up 9-2 in Game 3, they fought back every point. This is what high school sports are about. The atmosphere was wonderful.

St. Ursula's Lauran Graves, 8, tries to block the shot of Madeline Smyth, who led the Eagles (8-8) with 11 kills. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge | Photo Reprints

"When they got ahead of us [in Game 3] we weren't passing the ball. They were aggressively attacking, and we weren't able to get it to the middle to keep the outsides open. They were getting double-blocks on everything. It was tough sledding for us."

Notre Dame's momentum continued as the Arrows regained the lead only briefly (18-17 and 19-18), and the Eagles closed out Game 3 on Madeline Smyth's kill.

Now on its game, Notre Dame kept pace throughout Game 4, trimming a 19-13 Arrows edge down to 23-21 on another Smyth kill before St. Ursula closed the match on a kill from freshman Lauran Graves.

"I went with a minimal lineup and let my athletes just get out there and do what they do best, which is just play volleyball," Pitzen said. "We've struggled at times this year, and we've had a lot of ups and downs. But I believe, if we put our minds to it, we've got enough athletes to hang with St. Ursula.

"We didn't believe in the beginning, and it took getting our butts handed to us the first two sets for us to realize what this was was all about. This is our house, and I'd like to think we ended the match representing ourselves well against the No. 1 team in the state."

Cassidy Croci and Maddie Burnham topped the Arrows' attack game with 11 kills apiece, Graves had nine, Erin Williams added six, and senior setter/hitter Madison Strall played a solid all-around game.

"Notre Dame is a good team, and we went back a little bit," Strall said. "You can't do that with a good team on the other side of the net. You've got to keep fighting. But we came back and pulled through in the fourth game."

Notre Dame's Lisa Urbanski sets the ball during the first game against the top-ranked Arrows. The Eagles fell in four sets. THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Smyth led the Eagles with 11 kills, and Payton Bowyer and Morgan Fioritto added eight each in defeat.

St. Ursula, as the top seed in the TRAC, will open the conference tourney with a best-of-three-games match against the host team, last-place Lima Senior, at 10 a.m. on Oct. 15.

Notre Dame will be the No. 4 tourney seed, and will most likely face Clay in its first-round match, 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Arrows-Spartans match.

The other likely first-round TRAC tourney matchups include likely No. 2 seed Central Catholic facing probable No. 7 Whitmer at 10 a.m., followed 30 minutes later by the match between likely No. 3 Findlay and probable No. 6 Whitmer.

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com or 419-724-6461.