By Rich Palzewic
Sports editor
DE PERE – A fast start by the Green Bay Notre Dame Academy volleyball team Sept. 6 was too much to overcome for De Pere.
The Redbirds dropped the opening Fox River Classic Conference match of the season in four sets to the Tritons, 11-25, 23-25, 25-22 and 17-25.
Notre Dame jumped out to an 11-2 lead in game one and never looked back in taking control of the match early.
“We’re a young team,” said De Pere head coach Stephen Gladwell. “I expected us to make some mistakes, but we just made too many tonight, especially in game one – we came out flat.”
The Redbirds never got closer than seven points in the first set after the initial surge by the Tritons, but the lopsided score probably had more to do with how Notre Dame played, as compared to the De Pere’s mistakes.
“When we played our tempo and speed, that’s when the pieces started to fall for us,” said Notre Dame head coach Ben Wolf. “We were on fire to begin. When we looked at the stats in between games, we only had three combined serving and hitting errors in the opening set. I told the girls in the huddle, ‘that’s what clean volleyball does.’ When you take care of the net and business on your end, that’s the type of score you can put up. What a match. De Pere is never an easy place to play. I’m proud of our grit and effort. We are a young squad and we are really learning how to play in tight matches. We served really well in this match.”
With game two tied at 23, a key service error by the Redbirds gave the Tritons the lead. They followed that up with the winning point to take the victory.
De Pere (8-13 overall, 0-1 FRCC) appeared to be in total control in set three, but a late 6-0 run by Notre Dame gave the victors a 22-21 lead. The Redbirds would close the game out by scoring four straight to win going away.
The Tritons (6-5, 1-0) scored 16 of the last 24 points in game four to win comfortably.
“In game two we were in it, but we just made a few mistakes near the end,” Gladwell added. “I thought we had the momentum after the set-three victory, but then it was more of the same (in game four). We have to work on moving back and reading the ball – no one was really taking charge. It’s Notre Dame – they are a tough serving team and you know they’re going to serve it deep.”
Ellie Rose led the Tritons with 10 kills, 11 digs and five serving aces, while Molly Rader recorded nine kills. Libero Katherine Walch had 20 digs and five aces, and Elizabeth Schaupp had 22 assists.
For De Pere, Brianna Geurts had 13 kills and Anna Heling tallied 26 assists. Marie Olmsted and Megan Aalsma each had three serving aces.
Both teams are back in FRCC action Sept. 13. De Pere will host Ashwaubenon and Notre Dame will entertain Sheboygan North.