Volleyball Travels to Notre Dame
10/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
at Notre Dame
Friday, October 19 | 3 p.m.
Joyce Center | Notre Dame, Ind.
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CHICAGO -- The DePaul volleyball team travels to Notre Dame for a BIG EAST Conference match today. The match is slated to begin at 3 p.m. (CST) at the Joyce Center.
Today's meeting is the 12th between the two teams, with Notre Dame holding a 8-4 series advantage and has won the last four matches. Since reuniting in the BIG EAST in 2005, the Irish have won both matches 3-0. DePaul's last series win came in 1991, a 3-1 win in Chicago. The two programs were previous conference foes when the Blue Demons and Irish were members of the North Star Conference.
After starting the 2007 season 4-4 the Blue Demons (5-15, 1-6) have struggled and dropped 11 of their last 12 matches. DePaul's only win in the stretch was a 3-0 sweep of Rutgers on Oct. 7 in Chicago.
With five of the seven starters being freshman, the young Blue Demon squad has been forced to learn on the on the court with a quartet of freshman Christy Landschoot, Jacie Fiedler, Kate Letcher and Charla Drabant leading the team. Landschoot the team's setter, directs the offensive output as she dishes out 11.49 assists per game, the seventh most in the conference. Fiedler is the squads most precise hitter averaging a team-best .297 attack percentage and has collected 235 kills in the middle. On the outside, Drabant leads the team with 251 kills while Letcher has stuffed 47 blocks in the middle.
Notre Dame, who was picked to win the conference in the preseason by the leagues coaches sits in eighth place in the standings after splitting a pair of conference matches last weekend. The Irish (8-9, 4-3) dropped a 3-1 match at Marquette last Friday, but bounced back with a 3-1 victory at Syracuse on Sunday. Notre Dame is second in the league in blocks per game averaging 3.29 per set. Justine Stremick and Kellie Sciacca stand tall at net each averaging over 1.30 blocks per game. Stremick leads the team with 1.41 blocks per game and Sciacca follows with 1.33.
The Blue Demons break from conference action next week to host Chicago State on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at McGrath Arena. A weekend road trip sees DePaul at St. John's and Connecticut Oct. 26-28 before closing out the regular season at home with four BIG EAST matches.