NDCL cruises into district final THE SCORE

Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin volleyball coach Tom Ray insists he has “one or two rotations” that aren’t all that strong.

The Lions three-set demolition of Hubbard in a Division II district semifinal on Oct. 28 suggests otherwise.

Firing spikes from the left side, the right side, the middle and even the back row, NDCL defeathered the visiting Eagles, 25-11, 25-9, 25-18.

The win puts NDCL (105) in a district final on Oct. 31 at No. 1 seed Cortland Lakeview.

“We know we’re able to score,” Ray said. “That’s one of our biggest weapons. This offense is able to score out of any position. We’re refining everything and polishing it so we’re not giving points way.”

Pretty much everybody who got a swing in for the 10-5 Lions found the ground with their attacks. Missy Sterkel (nine) and Caroline Jurevicius (seven) led the hit parade, with Lauren Janosy (five) and Hanna Bissler (four) also chiming in.

When the Hubbard defense focused too much on the hitters, setter Eva Wheeler notched a trio of kills by dumping the ball over the net when no Eagle blockers were in position to get a hand on the ball.

The varied offense allowed NDCL to breeze through the district semifinal in less than an hour.

“There’s always someone

NDCL 3, HUBBARD 0

to set to,” Janosy, a sophomore, said. “Everybody has a role. Everybody gets an equal amount of sets. It’s not just one person going, going and going. It’s very spread out for us.”

Jurevicius nodded her head in affirmation.

“I think everybody is equally important,” said Jurevicius. “In this win, everybody did their job and did what they needed to do. Nobody was more important than the other.”

To make matters even more difficult on Hubbard, NDCL served well. Jurevicius snapped off a pair of aces to fuel the first-set win. Janosy rifled off three aces in the second-set win. Even when Hubbard took its first lead of the night, 5-3, in the third, an ace by Janosy gave her team the lead for good.

Janosy said she doesn’t normally serve, but she had three of them on this night. Bissler had five, Sterkel had three and Wheeler had one.

“We had a really good serve tonight,” Ray said. “We do have a home-court advantage for sure. This team is so big and physical, they’re able to serve the ball at a higher point than others when we’re jumping.”

With the district semifinal win complete, the Lions set their sights on the championship match with Lakeview. But that isn’t the team’s ultimate goal, either.

“We want to go all the way,” Jurevicius said. “We just have to do the work that’s going to get us there.”