By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
How well are things going for Notre Dame Academy volleyball right now?
This well.
For their Senior Day at Thomas More, the defending state champion Pandas, after winning the title in Kentucky two of the last three years and again having the top team in Northern Kentucky, invited Ryle’s Raiders over. And then celebrated by improving their season record to 25-3 with a perfect 12-0 mark against Northern Kentucky teams after a 3-0 (25-9, 25-19, 25-16) win over Ryle Thursday in a repeat of last year’s regional finals.
But Notre Dame had just one senior player – Ava Erpenbeck – to honor. Do the math. This Panda team will at worst be co-favored to win the state championship again this year (they’ve split with No. 1 Assumption this season), having beaten the Louisville school in their second meeting last week at a tournament in Chicago that featured six of the Top 25 teams in America.
Notre Dame Academuy’s Panda Mascot mixes it up with Ryle Raiders in the pregame program. (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)
“It’s a good situation,” says Panda junior Ella Goetz, one of the double-digit rotation for co-coaches Leslie Litmer and Jenna Leistner, who have known each other since they were first graders at St. Pius.
“It’s a good thing for now – and for next year,” said Goetz, who will be one of 10 returnees for next season after being one of seven this season. Although how many players the Pandas lose doesn’t seem to be much of an issue.
Two seniors from last season – Kamden Schrand now at nationally ranked Louisville and Sydney Nolan, at North Carolina, will face each other Friday when those teams meet. And both freshmen are starters for their Power-Five programs.
“Everyone’s proud of everyone,” said St. Elizabeth Game of the Month MVP Erpenbeck, who will forego the opportunity to play in college to head to UK and work on her dream to become a lawyer, she says.
“I feel everyone on our team can be a Division I player,” Erpenbeck said.
“We’re very fortunate,” Litmer said with a smile at all the talent. Ryle also has a Division I player in senior Kiana Dinn, headed to Pitt. But not enough players to stay with a Notre Dame team that never trailed, although five times the Raiders had the match tied early in the second and third games, but never could they get the point for a lead.
That was hardly an issue in the first game that Notre Dame won in a walk, opening with the first six points, then stringing 10 straight to turn an 8-6 game into an 18-6 romp.
And yet the Raiders wouldn’t go away, getting it as close as 24-19 in the second game and 18-14 in the third.
“The game of volleyball has gotten so much better in Northern Kentucky,” Litmer said after coming back with a second-place finish in the ASICS Challenge in Chicago. “There’s so much talent here.”
Notre Dame players celebrate win. (Photo by Dan Weber/NKyTribune)
But the top programs in Northern Kentucky – NDA, 2021 state champ St. Henry and Ryle, for example, all play more opponents outside Northern Kentucky – both downstate and out-of-state – than locally.
“Playing those teams only makes us better,” Litmer says of the challenges in Louisville, Lexington and Chicago. St. Henry headed for Florida where the Crusaders played the likes of Las Vegas Bishop Gorman.
With juniors Ava Tilden and Riley McCloskey along with sophomore Grace Portwood killing it, and junior Goetz and sophomore Audrey Dyas blocking and junior Lauren Ott and sophomore Lizzy Larkins assisting and juniors Julia Grace and Lacey Hostetler digging it – and with Hostetler serving it in this match, NDA is in a pretty good place right now.
“It’s definitely surreal,” Litmer says of how their dream of first playing for Notre Dame, then coming back and coaching as assistants, and finally, doing it as co-coaches, has come true for Leistner and her.
They were assistants in 2020 “when we finally did it, broke the 26-year curse” and won the state title, she says. Then they came back last season and did it again.
“It just worked,” Litmer says of the shared coaching responsibilities, “so far it’s good . . . she’s the defensive coordinator, I’m the offensive coordinator.” And the players have no trouble knowing how to work with their coaches’ specialties.
Only one problem on the horizon. Next year’s Senior Day. This year’s team has seven juniors. No more one and done.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.
