Notre Dame Sports Roundup: April 15

Volleyball: Year-to-year personnel changes are a given in high school sports. Seniors graduate to college and some role players often decide to focus on another sport exclusively. Yet it’s not often that coaches shift the program philosophy entirely.

But after losing a number of talented players off last year’s volleyball team – including Dan Podkowa and Peter Maniscalco, who are both playing at Loyola-Chicago – coach Pat Cole changed Notre Dame’s program into a defense-first mentality.

“It’s very hard to get seniors who played in one system for so long and have some certain aspirations to buy into a fundamental change,” Cole said. “Last year we had an incredible amount of fire power offensively and now the focus is defense, defense, defense.”

Nearing the mid-point of the season, Notre Dame finds itself at 6-4. Cole says the team is coming together quicker than expected despite injuries to Dan French (core muscle) and Kevin Fay (ankle).

Cole attributes that in part to senior libero Conor Maloney who has become the vocal leader in the Dons’ revamped defensive approach.

“He’s kind of a coach’s dream,” Cole said of Maloney. “He has a nose for the ball, the skill to back it up and the swagger you want from senior leadership.”

Early on in the season, the Dons struggled in closing out teams late in games. But Cole sees a renewed focus from his team and improvement in that area after a three-game victory over Niles North and a close three-game loss against Libertyville without Dan French.

“The mentality of our program is defense first, effort first and the rest of those things will come through hard work,” Cole said.

Baseball: After a 1-5 start to the season in which the Dons lost four times to teams in California, Notre Dame has rallied back to win six of their last seven games.

The hot streak started on April 4 with a tight 8-7 victory over New Trier and the Dons haven’t let up since. Andrew Gustafson was the winning pitcher in a 6-5 Notre Dame victory over Maine South the following day and the Dons took down Barrington, 5-2, and St. Ignatius, 7-3, in their next two matchups.

After a 2-1 loss to St. Rita on April 10, Notre Dame blasted Maine East and Loyola. Ryan Czazhor finished 2-for-2 with a triple and Anthony Pope went 3-for-3 with three RBI in the Dons’ 11-0 victory over Maine East.

Basketball: Notre Dame basketball player Quinton Chievous was named to the IBCA All-State 2^nd Team. Notre Dame advanced to the state sectional semi-finals before losing to Niles North.

Lacrosse: Notre Dame has had a rough start to the season, losing its first four games of the year. The Dons lost a close match, 3-0, in their home opener, but followed it up with losses to St. Rita, Maine South and St. Ignatius.