Notre Dame sophomores key first victory of season

Despite a sluggish start, Notre Dame Preparatory Academy used youth to its advantage, taking Tuesday’s 4A non-region girls volleyball match from veteran-laden Coronado 25-23, 25-15 at Coronado.

Coronado and Notre Dame are members of the newly created 4A Division II.

The Saints (1-2) relied on two sophomores — setter Sarah Svorinic and outside hitter Chelsey Thompson — in a match that featured a series of momentum shifts.

"Sarah and Chelsey as a one-two combination does the job for us," Notre Dame coach Laura Harris said.

"Sarah’s one of our captains and team leader. She has great court awareness . . . and Chelsey is my go-to outside hitter."

The two have been playing together since they were in seventh grade and Svorinic believes this long-standing relationship helps them dramatically on the court.

"We just bring lots of enthusiasm to the game," Svorinic said. "Every time we get a big kill, our energy level goes up another notch."

Despite their relatively unproductive night on the stat sheet —Thompson tied senior outside hitter Brynn Buckley for the team lead with four kills and Svorinic added a team-high nine assists —their effort was crucial late in the second game after the Dons (1-2) rolled to an early lead.

The two combined for five of the Saints’ final seven points and secured their first win of the season.

The pair’s effort was almost put to waste by Coronado senior hitter and co-captain Brittney Strumer. Strumer scored eight of the Dons’ first nine points and finished with a match-high 12 kills.

"She’s obviously our big hitter, but besides that, she does a lot of other things around the court — she’s big on blocking and she did a nice job passing," Coronado coach Cathy Wiggins said.

Despite the win, Harris believes her young team still has a lot to learn, especially when it comes to finishing matches.

"I don’t think my girls know how to finish and when," Harris said.

"We have a couple of girls that are leaders . . . that have that killer instinct, but I don’t think it’s rubbed off yet."