Notre Dame Prep falls in D2 semis to Lakewood
Notre Dame Prep unable to get past Lakewood in D2 semifinal
Thursday wasn’t the day the Notre Dame Prep volleyball team envisioned, but that wasn’t the main focus.
As the Irish were beaten by Lakewood in the Division 2 semifinals at Kellogg Arena by scores of 25-15, 25-13, 25-22, head coach Betty Wroubel was grateful that her team got a chance to finish the season after a two-month layoff.
“I am grateful to be here. It obviously isn’t the performance that we expected from ourselves, but this stage is a big stage. I give tons of credit to our girls for how hard they worked to get here. This is a terrific group of gals that work very hard and I am very proud to be their coach,” Wroubel said. “It’s been a very grueling year for them, I just give them so much credit. I love these kids and they work so darn hard.”
Notre Dame Prep (38-10) knew it needed a nearly flawless game plan in order to deal with Lakewood (42-2) and its two power hitters, Aubrey O’Gorman and Maradith
O’Gorman. The sisters are Michigan State commits, with Aubrey standing 6-foot-4 and Maradith standing 6-2”. Conversely, the Irish don’t have a player that reaches six feet.
The Irish couldn’t execute the game plan, as Maradith finished with 21 kills, while Aubrey tallied 11.
“We knew we were giving up at least six inches on a couple of gals. We knew we were undersized. We thought we had a good game plan to neutralize that. It didn’t happen,” Wroubel said. “We didn’t perform it the way we have been practicing it. They are good ball players. They are going to Michigan State for a reason. They were on and we were off. Our block was just a tad off and that just threw everything else off.”
While the size of the O’Gorman sisters presented a problem for the Notre Dame defense, the Lakewood defensive play created problems for the Irish attack. Notre Dame struggled to finish points as the Vikings tallied 70 digs in the match.
Freshman Carley Piercefield led the way defensively for Lake
wood with 24 digs, while sophomore setter Skylar Bump had 19 to go with her 30 assists.
“The six kids in the back court that handle the ball for us really have great ball control. Tonight they showed off their defensive range,” Lakewood coach Cam Rowland said.
Lakewood built the momentum from the start, using an 8-0 run to take a 6-6 tie in the first set and turning it into a 14-6 advantage. Aubrey O’Gorman finished the set with an off-speed kill.
In the second, it was more of the same as the Vikings established a quick 12-4 lead and Notre Dame wouldn’t be able to get closer than four points.
“We started off slow and then we came back, but I thought we had a great week of practices. The kids worked extremely hard. We went over the game plan…I think they could recite it in their sleep. They knew what we had to do. We were afraid to make a mistake and I am not quite sure why that is,” Wroubel said. “If we played a little bit looser, I don’t know if we win or not, but I know
there is a different result than what happened on that court (Thursday).”
The third set was the best for the Irish, as they jumped out to an 8-3 advantage thanks to a pair of aces from lone senior Olivia Kowalkowski.
Lakewood would slowly get back into the set and get the score tied at 20-20. Maradith O’Gorman delivered a thunderous kill to put the Vikings up 21-20 and she would add another kill down the stretch. A block by Aubrey O’Gorman would finish the match.
“I knew that if we came out and served and passed well, we would be super tough to defend because of our size at the net against them. As good as Notre Dame Prep is defensively, it’s tough to stop when the pace of the ball is coming over the net at which it was (Thursday),” Rowland said.
The Irish were led by junior Alyssa Borellis, who had six kills with 10 assists and 14 digs. Bianca Giglio and Grace Wenaas each added four kills. Margo Sudzina recorded 12 assists and 12 digs, while Josie Bloom had 12 digs.
Kowalkowski finished with seven digs and a pair of aces in the final match of her prep career. The senior
has been with the program the last four seasons. She will go on to play her college volleyball at Georgia State.
“Olivia has been rock solid and I think you saw that again (Thursday). She’s been a leader. She’s been an inspiration to us. It’s not easy to lead a team as the lone senior,” Wroubel said of Kowalkowski. “You don’t have one or two other gals to bounce things off of, you have to do it on your own. I give full credit to the leadership that Olivia has shown. Georgia State is getting a heck of a kid.”
Kowalkowski accomplished something not many in the state have been able to do, as she played in the state finals weekend all four years of her career.
“I am super grateful to have had the opportunity to get closure and seal our season. The result wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but that doesn’t define our season whatsoever,” Kowalkowski said. “I love coming to this arena. I came here to watch my sister play. There’s a lot of history here for me personally. I am just so grateful to have had the opportunity to come here all four years of my career. Not a lot of people get to say that.”