The Chattanooga Christian volleyball team went to Notre Dame on Aug. 26 and claimed a big District 7-AA win over the Lady Irish.
Notre Dame returned the favor on Tuesday night at CCS.
Playing before a near-capacity crowd that was loud and supportive, the Lady Irish improved to 16-11 overall and 4-2 in 7-AA with the 3-2 victory in a match that could have gone either way.
Notre Dame took the early lead with a 25-20 win in the first set before the Lady Chargers won the next two by scores of 25-21 and 25-22. The Lady Chargers then scored the first three points of the fourth set and looked to be on their way to another win when the Lady Irish started playing.
Six straight service points from Mallory Hein allowed Notre Dame to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 9-4 lead and the Lady Irish never trailed again. Four service points from Grace VanderWerf stretched the lead from 11-6 to 15-6 and the Lady Chargers never recovered.
CCS got back-to-back aces from Madison Schuster to cut the lead to 23-17, but a serve into the net made it 24-17 before Notre Dame evened the match on a CCS hitting error.
Five straight service points from Cassie Curry allowed the Lady Chargers to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 6-2 lead in the all-important fifth set, but by the time Hein unleashed seven more service points in a row, Notre Dame's lead was 10-6.
An ace by Kaylee Stone extended Notre Dame's lead to 13-7. Another kill by VanderWerf a point later made it 14-8 before the Lady Irish finished off the match with the last point.
"That was a good win for us against a quality opponent," smiled Notre Dame coach Ted Hackett after the match finally ended.
"We've played about 14 or 15 matches in the last eight days and we may have gotten tired, but we showed a lot of character. We made a lot of unforced errors in the second and third sets. We also spotted them five points in the third set and you can't do that against a good team and expect to win.
"But we started playing our game by hitting it hard up front and the momentum swung our way. This was a loud and fun environment, but it was also hostile. I thought we started hustling a little more in the last two sets, but I know what kind of ability we have. I always have hope that we'll play up to our potential and that's what we did in the last two sets," he added.
CCS coach Brian Wood felt like his team went away from what they had been doing to get the early advantage.
"We should have won, but we stopped swinging and started tipping. We need to be more aggressive, but we let them take it to us at the end. I'm pleased with our hustle, but not so happy with the overall tentative nature of our team," he explained.
"We tend to get uptight when we get behind. We needed to settle down and play our game, but we weren't able to do that. We played uptight and made too many errors. But give Notre Dame a lot of credit. They changed their lineup and played totally different today than they did the first time we played," Wood added.
VanderWerf led the Notre Dame effort with 15 kills and the same number of digs while Stone had a dozen kills and 14 digs.
Keri Klassen and Hein both finished with 22 digs while Ragen Dobson had 40 assists and 19 digs. Claire VanderWerf, Grace's younger sister, also played well and finished with 18 digs and eight kills.
Riley Visser had 11 kills to spearhead Chattanooga Christian's offense while Hannah Stewart finished with 28 digs. Taylor Youell played well and added 21 assists and 14 digs.
Notre Dame has a few days off before going to East Ridge on Monday for a three-way meet with the Lady Pioneers and Red Bank.
CCS, now 19-13 overall and 4-2 in 7-AA, has a day off to regroup before going to Signal Mountain for another big match against the district leaders.
NOTRE DAME STATS:
Keri Klassen -- 3 aces, 22 digs
Randi Clement -- 5 kills, 3 digs
Mallory Hein -- 1 ace, 1 assist, 22 digs
Tess Scobey -- 5 kills, 6.5 blocks, 2 digs
Ragen Dobson -- 1 ace, 1 kill, 40 assists, 19 digs
Claire VanderWerf -- 2 aces, 8 kills, 1 block, 18 digs
Kaylee Stone -- 3 aces, 12 kills, 4 blocks, 1 assist, 14 digs
Grace VanderWerf -- 3 aces, 15 kills, 4.5 blocks, 1 assist, 15 digs.
CHATTANOOGA CHRISTIAN STATS:
Katie Smith -- 4 kills, 2 aces, 2 blocks, 5 digs
Taylor Youell -- 7 kills, 1 ace, 21 assists, 14 digs
Kelbie Williams -- 1 kill, 7 digs
Hannah Stewart -- 2 aces, 28 digs
Anna Rogers -- 3 digs
Riley Visser -- 11 kills, 1 ace, 2 blocks, 6 digs
Annika Fischer -- 2 kills, 1 block, 1 dig
Madison Schuster -- 6 kills, 3 aces, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 digs
Cassie Curry -- 6 kills, 3 aces, 1 block, 4 digs
Anna Linkous -- 1 kill, 1 dig.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@Comcast.net)