In a back-and-forth third set Sunday against Notre Dame, Noemie Lefebvre unleashed a powerful spike that bounced off an Irish player and multiple rows deep into the stands.

The spike sent the message that Lefebvre was going to carry Syracuse to another victory.

‘She’s an awesome player,’ SU libero Ashley Williams said. ‘You saw it out there today on the court. She’s fantastic.’

Lefebvre led a balanced offensive effort by Syracuse (19-11, 8-6 Big East) in victories over DePaul (7-22, 3-11 Big East) Friday and a Notre Dame (15-11, 8-6 Big East) team that had beaten the Orange 18 straight times on Sunday. SU swept the Blue Demons 3-0 in front of 389 and defeated the Irish 3-1 in front of 585 on Senior Day to advance to the Big East tournament. The Big East tournament kicks off Friday as the fourth-seeded Orange take on the Irish for the second time in less than a week.

Syracuse used one of its most complete offensive performances of the season to defeat the Blue Demons, hitting at least .290 in all three sets while DePaul topped .138 just once in the three frames. The strong play on offense continued Sunday as Lefebvre and three other SU players hit over .340 in the win over Notre Dame.

Going into Sunday’s matchup, SU hadn’t beaten the Irish in 30 years. But interim head coach Kelly Morrisroe said the team wasn’t worried about its history against Notre Dame.

‘Down in the locker room it was about us,’ Morrisroe said. ‘ … We can do some good things, we’ve always known that.’

It didn’t look good early as the Orange’s sloppy play allowed Irish to jump out to a 16-10 lead in the first set. Both defensive specialists Williams and Julia Mindlina struggled early with receiving Notre Dame hits, sending multiple passes sailing out of bounds.

With Syracuse trailing by six, Morrisroe called a timeout to settle her team down.

Coming out of the timeout, SU straightened out its passing issues and rode an 11-5 run to tie the set at 21. From there, the Orange let the Irish make the mistakes to take the opening set 25-23 after an attacking error.

‘Everyone came together,’ Erin Little said. ‘You can’t just win out there with one person. I feel like everyone had as big of a role as anyone else.’

The second set belonged to SU middle blockers Samantha Hinz and Lindsay McCabe. Hinz, the Big East’s leader in blocks, carried Syracuse to a 15-8 lead.

Notre Dame made a run in the second set to tie the set at 21, but the Orange held on behind the play of McCabe and a pair of game-changing points. The first came on a high sailing set from Emily Betteridge that McCabe was able to slam over the heads of Notre Dame’s blockers. Then, a block sealed the set for the Orange.

Out of the intermission, the Irish carried their late second-set momentum to 26-24 victory in the third set.

But with their college careers potentially on the line, Lefebvre took over.

Lefebvre, SU’s top offensive player, pulled off perhaps her most impressive performance of the season leading the way for the Orange with 17 kills. Lefebvre hit many balls so hard that they hit off Notre Dame players, just as she did on that third-set spike.

With Lefebvre leading the way, Syracuse cruised to win the final set of the regular season 25-16.

‘It was always a goal for us to beat Notre Dame,’ Lefebvre said. ‘ … This is my last game and just to leave everything on the court, it was still a great game as a team.’

As inconsistent as the Orange has been all season, it finished the season in fourth place in the Big East.

Though SU’s inconsistency has led to some disappointing losses, the team has shown flashes of its talent as it did over the weekend. Morrisroe feels that talent combined with proper preparation gives her team a shot to make some noise at the conference tournament.

‘Our practice plans are a lot in preparation for our opponents, and they’ve really responded well,’ Morrisroe said. ‘They have that talent there, and we’re excited that they’re now coming out and showing it a little bit.’

dbwilson@syr.edu