The Seton Hall volleyball team split their final road trip of the season, falling 3-1 to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday (25-19, 22-25, 25-22, 25-17), but rebounded to defeat the DePaul Blue Demons 3-0 (25-23, 25-9, 26-24) in Chicago on Sunday.
The split secured the first winning season overall in four years for the Pirates, who are now 15-12 on the season and 6-6 in conference play.
Against Notre Dame, the Irish started off on a 7-2 run, leading to a victory in the first set as the Pirates could not get closer than four points (at 13-9).
The second set belonged to the Pirates, who were able to extend the lead to 20-14 at one point, marking their largest of the match. They held off an Irish comeback to take set two.
In the third set, the Pirates lost a tough, back-and-forth set 25-22, trading points most of the way.
The Irish went on to put the match away with a big rally in the fourth set.
"I was not happy with the first set against Notre Dame at all," head coach Kris Zeiter said. "We just made a lot of mistakes, and couldn't stop them either.
"The second [set] went like I was hoping the first [set] would go, and we got off to a good start in the third, too. But we just couldn't hold the lead, and that took some wind out of our sails and they got fired up."
Despite the loss, the Pirates did well statistically. Sophomore libero Alyssa Warren became the eighth player in school history to post 1,000 career digs with 15 in the match, while senior Krissy Wrobel added a season-high 10 blocks.
Against DePaul, the Hall was led by two 13-kill performances from senior Meghan Matusiak and junior Hannah Hugeback.
Hugeback's big game came with just one attacking miscue on 22 attempts, while Matusiak added three service aces to her kill total.
"That was [Hugeback's] best match of the season by far," Zeiter said. "She's had her struggles this year, but she's kept her head up and worked hard. Hopefully, she can have a couple more good games for us."
Freshman Shelbey Manthorpe also had a strong game for the Hall with 16 digs and 31 assists.
Seton Hall and DePaul played the first set close, but Seton Hall came away with the win after a late 3-point run.
The second set was controlled by the Pirates as they dominated to take the 2-0 lead in the match before closing out DePaul in the third set on a comeback from six points down.
The Pirates conclude their season with two matches at home this weekend, facing St. John's on Saturday and Connecticut on Sunday.
A win and a USF loss guarantees a spot in the Big East tournament for the Pirates, which would be their third straight appearance in postseason play under Zeiter.
Both matches start at 2 p.m. at Walsh Gymnasium.
Jason Guerette can be reached at jason.guerette@student.shu.edu.
