The two own 32 of the 44 state volleyball championships since volleyball was an official KHSAA sport in 1979.
Notre Dame owns 10 of those titles, Assumption with 22.
Now the two will meet Saturday night at George Rogers Clark for the 2023 state championship.
The Pandas disposed of West Jessamine in three sets, 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-13). Assumption knocked off Mercy, 3-0 (25-16, 25-11, 25-20) in Saturday’s morning and early afternoon semifinals. While the two are no stranger on the state tournament level, they’ve played each other three times this season, Assumption holding a 2-1 edge in those matchups.
Can Notre Dame even up the season series in the most important match of the season?
“It’s what we’ve been working for and training for all year,” Notre Dame’s Audrey Dyas said. “Last time they beat us at their gym and we’re looking at it as a revenge tour. We’ll come out and blazing and it’s going to be good.”
Dyas made sure things got there, especially in the third set when she recorded eight kills in the game clinching set.
“Our coaches were saying how they wanted me to get fed more so our setters did what they needed to do,” Dyas said.
The Pandas (33-5) were in attack mode all game long, tallying 54 kills to the Colts 25. Dyas finished with 12, Grace Portwood also with 12. Ava Tilden and Riley McCloskey had eight apiece, Ava Erpenbeck with six.
Lauren Ott and Lizzy Larkins set up the Notre Dame hitters with 28 and 20 assists, respectively while Julia Grace got the offense going with 17 digs.
Fast starts were key in the Pandas Saturday afternoon semifinal victory in Winchester. They jumped out to leads of 5-2, 8-1 and 14-3 in each respective set.
“We’re definitely an energy driven team this year. So we rely on the energy in the gym but also on the energy a lot within each other as a group, we’re very close knit group of people. So I think that that largely contributed to the leads that we were jumping out at,” Notre Dame co-head coach Leslie Litmer said.
West Jessamine (32-10) was able to respond in each one, after Notre Dame led 14-9 in the first set, the Colts got within three after a Rebekah Buchkolz kill and Riley Snowden ace, but Notre Dame responded with a 10-5 run, getting to set point thanks to a first set where they tallied 20 kills. Portwood’s kill ended the first set.
Ava Tilden was the catalyst to the fast start in the second set with two kills and her second ace of the early run to make it 8-1. West Jessamine gained their most momentum of the day from there. They threw the kitchen sink at the Pandas to get within 21-19 after a Callaway Marsh kill.
The Pandas called timeout.
“Coach just told us to calm down. We were up a set and points, needed to calm down, take a deep breath and play our game,” Dyas said.
The response was two straight points, one a McCloskey kill followed by a Colts error and a West Jessamine timeout. They were unable to respond, Dyas and McCloskey closing out the set with kills.
Getting the feeling of a championship showdown, the Pandas scored 14 of the first 17 points in the third set. West Jessamine was unable to get any closer than seven from there.
One area the Pandas will want to clean up is in the service department, after seven service errors in their quarterfinal win over McCracken County, they had eight in the semifinals against the Colts.
“We just need a mental reset. These girls because they feed off of energy, the moment they feel a little bit of negativity or the pressure of the situation come in, it’s sometimes I think it’s a good thing that many of them have been here before. But I also think sometimes it’s a curse where you do kind of realize what your goal is and the pressure that comes with that,” Litmer said. “So I think it’s just trying to make sure we told our girls during this break here to put yourself in a good mental place, rest yourself emotionally and physically so that when we come out tonight we’re able to manage our emotions and rise to the level and perform nothing fancier than what we normally do. We just have to come out and play our game.”
The championship game will begin at 7:30 p.m.
West Jessamine’s season came to a close at 32-10. Buckholz had seven kills to lead them, Delia Long with seven. Marsh had 19 assists, Snowden with 11 digs.
