by LARRY VAUGHT
Gaerte was a first team all-ACC selection last season and team captain for Notre Dame. Last season she had 497 kills, the most by a Notre Dame player in 20 years and third most ever. She averaged 4.64 kills per set and had 10-plus kills in 22-straight matches, the second-longest streak in program history at Notre Dame.
She was a top five player in her recruiting class and is being counted on to offset the loss of All-American Eva Hudson off last year’s national runner-up team. She has moved to the right side at Kentucky and had 11 kills, seven digs and two blocks against Louisville.
“I think she has a really big presence,” Kentucky senior Lizzie Carr said. “She is a big personality, and adds a lot to our team, and is really just such a good addition off the court for us. Then obviously you see her presence on the court.
“She has been in the gym, and she’s been working hard. She’s definitely added to what we have so far this spring.”
Senior All-American hitter Brooklyn DeLeye said it was “awesome” to have Gaerte on the team.
“She has such a heavy arm, and I think all of us out there have just grown so much in our offensive game,” DeLeye said after the Louisville loss.
However, Carr made it clear that losing to Louisville even in an exhibition match was not acceptable.
“This stinks for us, and this is our motivator for every day this summer, and will really carry with us and help us have good energy (during the summer),” “Craig does a really good job of recruiting like minded people in that aspect of just wanting to be really competitive and wanting to win, and not settling for just being good and always striving for more.
“I think that that comes with the intensity piece, and all of us want to get better and want to do better. Whether we win or not, we are still beating ourselves up on little things that we know we can do better. No matter what the scoreboard looks like we’re always trying to find ways to be better, and there’s always intensity that comes with that.”
