Box Score RENO, Nev. - The University of Nevada (4-2) volleyball rallied from a 2-1 deficit to knock Notre Dame (4-2) 3-2 and win the Nevada Invitational at the Virginia Street Gym Saturday night. The Wolf Pack went 3-0 in the invitational to claim the title and improve to 4-2 on the season while the Irish were 2-1 and is also 4-2 on the year. Belmont went 1-2 and Weber State 0-3 in the two day event.
Trailing 2-1 the Pack dominated set four to force a deciding fifth set. With set four tied at 5-5 Nevada put together a 9-4 run to take a 14-9 lead and cruised the 10-point victory at 25-15 to even the match at two sets each. The Pack hit .346 and held ND to a .029 attack percentage.
Set five was tied seven times before the Pack prevailed 15-12 to win the match 3-2. Freshman Grace Anxo had four kills, Kylie Harrington three and Janelle Batista two in the final set to help Nevada to victory. The Wolf Pack hit .261 and the Irish .227 in the set five.
ND won the first set by a slim margin of 25-23 hitting just .095 while Nevada hit .128. The Wolf Pack responded with a 25-22 set two victory to even the match at one set each. The Pack hit .289 and ND .244 in the second set.
The Irish dominated set three with an easy 25-11 victory. ND hit an amazing .619 and the Wolf Pack negative .071. Set four was all Pack as they forced the deciding fifth set and won by a score of 15-12 to take the match 3-2.
Harrington led the Pack with 17 kills and added 10 digs to post a double-double which helped her win most valuable player honors in the invitational. Junior setter Tatiana Santiago finished with 40 assists and was also named to the all-tournament squad. Nevada's third representative on the all-tournament team was senior middle blocker Lindsay Baldwin who joined Batista and Anxo to top the team with eight blocks each in the championship match. Libero Nicole Link finished with a match-high 19 digs and Anxo contributed 10.
Kristen Dealy led the Irish with 19 kills and added 15 digs to post a double-double. Andrea McHugh also added a double-double in the match with 17 kills and 16 digs which helped her earn all-tournament honors. Kellie Sciacca was also chosen to the all-tournament squad and finished with 12 kills on Saturday night. ND setter Sammie Brown dished out a match-high 47 assists in the tough loss. Frenchy Silva and Marie Roof had 12 and 10 digs respectively.
The Pack hit .188 and ND .205 in the title match. Nevada finished with 18.5 blocks and ND totaled 13.
Nevada will host the Wolf Pack invitational next weekend when national ranked Arizona, Pacific and Northern Arizona travel to Reno for the two day event that gets underway on Friday at 10:00 a.m. The Pack plays Northern Arizona at noon on Friday and Arizona at 7 p.m. Saturday's match with Pacific gets underway at 2 p.m.
Nevada Invitational All-Tournament Team
Piper Wahlin, Weber State
Kayla Albritton, Belmont
Andrea McHugh, Notre Dame
Kellie Sciacca , Notre Dame
Tatiana Santiago, Nevada
Lindsay Baldwin, Nevada
Kylie Harrington, Nevada - MVP
