Volleyball wins third consecutive regular season championship
Andrew Silverman, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/5/08 Section: Sports
"I was just a little bit frustrated," Kovaleva said. "And it just all happened to be around me."
Even with all the frustration that was being shown on the court, this team made the necessary adjustments and refused to go down without a fight.
"They were real prepared for us," Kovaleva said. "They knew our go-to hitter. And they are pretty tall so it was challenging."
The Red Storm came out in the fourth set, knowing it was win or go home, and they played like it. The score was tied ten times and the lead changed hands three times before the Storm were able to rattle off a late 5-2 run to force a fifth and decisive set.
"The turning point was when we won that fourth game," Persico-Smith said. "It went into the fifth game, it was 0-0 and we were back to playing good ball."
The fifth set was as close as the fourth, but the Red Storm never relinquished the lead despite Notre Dame tying the score on five separate occasions.
"It was really a great win," Persico-Smith said. "We really fought through that and we rose up and the girls just hung tough."
With the victory, the Red Storm are now 12-1 in Big East play and with everything wrapped up, there is still plenty to work on before the Big East tournament begins next Friday in Pittsburgh.
"We still need to improve a couple of things for our future matches to go smoothly," Kovaleva said.
"We need Darlene [Ramdin], and Kun [Song] and Chen [Chen]," Persico-Smith said. "That's going to be the difference whether we move forward. We need all six people to keep learning new shots, working on their game."
The Red Storm will look to end their regular season on an up-beat with a win at DePaul on Sunday.
Even with all the frustration that was being shown on the court, this team made the necessary adjustments and refused to go down without a fight.
"They were real prepared for us," Kovaleva said. "They knew our go-to hitter. And they are pretty tall so it was challenging."
The Red Storm came out in the fourth set, knowing it was win or go home, and they played like it. The score was tied ten times and the lead changed hands three times before the Storm were able to rattle off a late 5-2 run to force a fifth and decisive set.
"The turning point was when we won that fourth game," Persico-Smith said. "It went into the fifth game, it was 0-0 and we were back to playing good ball."
The fifth set was as close as the fourth, but the Red Storm never relinquished the lead despite Notre Dame tying the score on five separate occasions.
"It was really a great win," Persico-Smith said. "We really fought through that and we rose up and the girls just hung tough."
With the victory, the Red Storm are now 12-1 in Big East play and with everything wrapped up, there is still plenty to work on before the Big East tournament begins next Friday in Pittsburgh.
"We still need to improve a couple of things for our future matches to go smoothly," Kovaleva said.
"We need Darlene [Ramdin], and Kun [Song] and Chen [Chen]," Persico-Smith said. "That's going to be the difference whether we move forward. We need all six people to keep learning new shots, working on their game."
The Red Storm will look to end their regular season on an up-beat with a win at DePaul on Sunday.
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