Notre Dame co-head coach Jenna Leistner stood up after another Addison Hart kill and made it clear what needed to happen.
“You have to find a way to stop her,” Leistner said.
Shortly after that, juniors Ella Goetz and Riley McCloskey blocked the McCracken County junior outside hitter to put the Pandas up 15-14 in the final game and the Pandas never trailed again on the way to a state quarterfinal win, 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, 25-19) over the Mustangs at George Rogers Clark. Notre Dame advanced to the state semifinals for the fourth time in five years with the win.
“I feel the team got really hyped up,” Goetz said of the block. “We came back with lots of energy. (Hart) could jump really high and hit it really hard so that was hard for us to defend. But we got her. When she did hit, I feel like our defense was there passing it right up.”
Hart came into the game leading the Mustangs with 470 kills, including 15 in the state tournament first round win over University Heights Academy on Monday.
Hart finished with a game-high 11 kills, but Notre Dame’s balance was too much for the Mustangs. Notre Dame put down 33 kills overall and had 14 errors on 76 attempts and McCracken County recorded 25 kills, but had 20 hitting errors on 73 attempts.
“(Hart) was not only a great hitter,” Leistner said. “She did great at all six rotations. Their setter set the ball far outside to (Hart). She put (Hart) in a good spot with good opportunities.”
Notre Dame’s presence at the net forced McCracken County into a number of the hitting errors. Goetz and McCloskey combined for all three Pandas blocks.
The Pandas (32-5) had six different hitters record kills. Ava Erpenbeck led the way with nine kills, Grace Portwood and Ava Tilden following with eight and seven, respectively. Setters Lauren Ott and Lizzy Larkins had 14 and 13 assists, respectively.
“I think since we have such well-rounded hitters, we have so many options to go to and that confuses the other side,” Portwood said. “They don’t know who to block. Give credit to our setters too. Setting the right person helps us score points with those kills.”
Notre Dame’s serving also played a role in the win, especially the third game recording 13 aces. Tilden landed seven aces and libero Julia Grace had four.
Notre Dame finished with 31 assists and 27 digs overall to go with seven service errors and just three serve-receive errors. Tilden and Ott led the Pandas with six digs each and Grace had five as nine different Pandas had at least one. Grace and others consistently told the setters where to put the ball.
“Communication is key from our defense to our offense, offense to defense,” Leistner said. “We wouldn’t be where we are unless we have that great communication. A lot of that starts with Julia Grace. She does a great job being a leader out there.”
McCracken County (27-12) finished with 21 digs, 21 assists, two blocks and three aces to go with 13 serve receive errors, eight serving errors and one general ball-hitting error. Setter Olivia Tapscott had 19 assists for the Mustangs.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first game behind a Portwood kill. But the Mustangs came back to tie the game at nine before Grace landed two aces and the Pandas built a 19-11 lead forcing a Mustangs timeout. Notre Dame won it on a wide serve.
McCracken County scored the first two points of the second game and led 7-4 at one point. But the Pandas fought back to go up 12-9 after a Tilden ace. Portwood then landed a kill to expand that lead to 19-11. After an Erpenbeck kill, the Pandas won it when McCracken County hit it into the net.
The Mustangs came out stronger in the third game trying to keep their season alive building a 4-0 lead off two Hart kills. They led 14-11 when the Pandas made their run. Notre Dame did not go up by more than two until a Mustangs net hit gave them a 21-18 lead. Tilden then landed two kills giving the Pandas match point. It did not happen the first time. But the Pandas won the game on a wide serve.
The Pandas have won all five meetings in program history against McCracken County, including four times in the state quarterfinals. McCracken County has won the the 1st Region all 11 years in existence as a school, but has only advanced past the quarterfinals once in 2017, losing to Assumption in the state semifinals.
First-year head coach Chancie Coleman said she tried to make the schedule challenging to prepare the Mustangs for the state tournament. The Mustangs came to Ryle on Oct. 14 and lost to the Raiders, 2-0 (25-17, 27-25) and Conner, 2-1 (25-16, 15-25, 25-12).
“We’ve got plans next year to make our schedule even harder to get us ready to play at a faster level,” Coleman said. “Notre Dame is obviously a very solid team. We knew going in they ran a fast offense. One of our focuses was to try to keep up with them and contain their hitters while also hitting our shots. We executed at times and there were other times where that execution wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be.”
Notre Dame takes on 12th Region champion West Jessamine (33-9) at 1:30 p.m. after Louisville powers Assumption (34-5) and Mercy (22-20) face off at 11:30 a.m. The Pandas and Colts also met in the state semifinals in 2020 with Notre Dame winning 3-1 (25-9, 25-15, 21-25, 25-16).
